100 Years of Wildlife Films

0:00:02 > 0:00:09I remember getting our very first television. It was enormous.

0:00:09 > 0:00:13About that size, except the screen was about that size.

0:00:13 > 0:00:15Nine inches, black-and-white.

0:00:15 > 0:00:20But on it I saw my very first wildlife programmes.

0:00:20 > 0:00:23That was 50 years ago.

0:00:23 > 0:00:2550 years before that,

0:00:25 > 0:00:28the very first wildlife film appeared.

0:00:28 > 0:00:33So, there had been 100 years of wildlife film-making.

0:00:33 > 0:00:35And I reckon it's time we looked back.

0:01:30 > 0:01:34In this two hour special we'll be featuring the passionate,

0:01:34 > 0:01:36intrepid and sometimes eccentric individuals

0:01:36 > 0:01:39who've gone to the ends of the Earth

0:01:39 > 0:01:42to open up new worlds to viewers.

0:01:42 > 0:01:46We'll chart the extraordinary changes in technology that have driven the industry.

0:01:46 > 0:01:48And we'll look at how we, the audiences,

0:01:48 > 0:01:53have been entertained and affected by what we've seen on our screens.

0:01:53 > 0:01:57Indeed, this century of wildlife films may reveal as much about us

0:01:57 > 0:02:00as about the animals themselves.

0:02:02 > 0:02:08This programme contains some scenes that some viewers may find upsetting.

0:02:24 > 0:02:28Throughout history, first drawings,

0:02:28 > 0:02:31then paintings, then sculptures,

0:02:31 > 0:02:34books, eventually cameras -

0:02:34 > 0:02:37first stills, then movies -

0:02:37 > 0:02:41and always the favourite subject - wildlife.

0:02:41 > 0:02:46Now, let's face it, animals don't actually rehearse and they don't

0:02:46 > 0:02:49"work on their image" like they say in show business.

0:02:49 > 0:02:52But the fact of the matter is, in front of the cameras

0:02:52 > 0:02:55they are naturals.

0:02:55 > 0:02:59The pups try their best to keep alert along with their parents.

0:02:59 > 0:03:02But it's a bit of a struggle when you've just woken up.

0:03:18 > 0:03:22Right from the very beginning, film-makers recognised that animals

0:03:22 > 0:03:24had a huge entertainment value.

0:03:25 > 0:03:29This somewhat bizarre footage is the earliest known

0:03:29 > 0:03:31moving image of a wild animal.

0:03:31 > 0:03:33It was pictures like this that inspired

0:03:33 > 0:03:39one man in particular when he wrote, "The actual movements of the wild creatures can now be captured.

0:03:39 > 0:03:44"The secrets and all the wonders of nature can be brought to the platform alive.

0:03:44 > 0:03:47"And I was determined to do it."

0:03:47 > 0:03:49And do it he did.

0:03:49 > 0:03:55He was Oliver Pike, who made the first fully-fledged wildlife film to be seen in Britain, back in 1907.

0:03:58 > 0:04:00It was called In Bird Land

0:04:00 > 0:04:02and it was a great success.

0:04:02 > 0:04:04The proceeds funded Pike's second

0:04:04 > 0:04:07and even more popular film about the birds

0:04:07 > 0:04:11and people of St Kilda.

0:04:11 > 0:04:15This, of course, was long before the invention of television.

0:04:15 > 0:04:19So Pike showed his 15 minute movies wherever cinemas had begun to spring up

0:04:19 > 0:04:22in Britain, America and across the Empire.

0:04:22 > 0:04:27And people flocked and paid to wonder at them.

0:04:27 > 0:04:31St Kilda isn't a cosy place to film even today.

0:04:31 > 0:04:34Back then it was really remote.

0:04:34 > 0:04:37And the camera equipment, well,

0:04:37 > 0:04:40it wasn't exactly what you'd call portable.

0:04:40 > 0:04:46This is the kind of equipment that Pike would have used.

0:04:46 > 0:04:50It's made out of finest mahogany, or some other endangered tree no doubt.

0:04:52 > 0:04:55Believe me, it is incredibly heavy.

0:04:55 > 0:05:00You face it the right way, birds over there.

0:05:00 > 0:05:04Film is in here. Of course, spool there, spool there, it's going to go round and round.

0:05:04 > 0:05:07How does it go round? This rather fetching brass handle.

0:05:07 > 0:05:10This is rather noisy. This is the way it goes.

0:05:10 > 0:05:14RASPING WHIRRING

0:05:16 > 0:05:20So, chances are, the first time he did that, all the birds would "woah" out of here

0:05:20 > 0:05:23because it sounds like a machine-gun, doesn't it?

0:05:23 > 0:05:28So he had a cunning plan. He was going to have to get them used to that kind of noise.

0:05:28 > 0:05:31He didn't want to cart his camera up there every time

0:05:31 > 0:05:34and not actually use any film, if you see what I mean.

0:05:34 > 0:05:36So here's ingenuity for you.

0:05:36 > 0:05:39He collected up some pebbles, like this.

0:05:41 > 0:05:45He'd remembered to bring a tin can. Probably had baked beans in it.

0:05:45 > 0:05:49Pebbles into the can and he'd go up into the sea bird colony and go...

0:05:50 > 0:05:52And after...

0:05:52 > 0:05:56I imagine, several days, possibly several weeks, they finally got used to this.

0:05:56 > 0:05:59"Oh, it's just that nutty bloke with his tin can."

0:05:59 > 0:06:03So the next time, he came up with his camera.

0:06:03 > 0:06:05He placed the camera down, birds over there.

0:06:05 > 0:06:08Rattled his tin can.

0:06:08 > 0:06:11"It's all right, lads. Just the tin can."

0:06:11 > 0:06:15Then he would stop that and immediately start doing that.

0:06:15 > 0:06:17A sort of aural splice.

0:06:17 > 0:06:23And the birds just sat there and thought, "It's all right, we're not being filmed. It's just a tin can."

0:06:23 > 0:06:28It wasn't and he got some truly historic pictures.

0:06:31 > 0:06:33Aw. It's flown away.

0:06:33 > 0:06:37Of course, nesting birds don't fly away.

0:06:37 > 0:06:40And they were a favourite subject.

0:06:40 > 0:06:43Although it was still a precarious business filming them.

0:06:45 > 0:06:49It also required a lot of ingenuity and, indeed,

0:06:49 > 0:06:52camouflage.

0:06:52 > 0:06:57Yep, that is the first example of cow-cam. Relishing and overcoming

0:06:57 > 0:07:02apparently insurmountable problems is one of the hallmarks of a wildlife film-maker.

0:07:02 > 0:07:06And the most intrepid of them all was Cherry Kearton.

0:07:07 > 0:07:14Yes, it really is surprising that I should be sitting safely here to tell this story.

0:07:14 > 0:07:20For only by a series of miracles have I escaped death, as you shall see.

0:07:24 > 0:07:26Kearton's driving ambition

0:07:26 > 0:07:29was to capture images the world had never seen before.

0:07:29 > 0:07:35He was soon lured away from birds in Britain by faraway Africa.

0:07:36 > 0:07:40It was in East Africa that Kearton did indeed make history

0:07:40 > 0:07:45by capturing the first moving images of African animals.

0:07:45 > 0:07:48The ability simply to get the shots

0:07:48 > 0:07:50was the big thing.

0:07:50 > 0:07:54How you put them together was very much of less importance.

0:07:54 > 0:08:00And what Cherry Kearton did was get the shots.

0:08:00 > 0:08:02He got amazing shots.

0:08:06 > 0:08:10Not only was Kearton the first to film Africa's wildlife,

0:08:10 > 0:08:13but he did so at a time when national parks didn't even exist

0:08:13 > 0:08:17and telephoto lenses were a thing of the future.

0:08:18 > 0:08:22What's more, in those days, travel was a very far from easy

0:08:22 > 0:08:24as Kearton's wife Ada explains.

0:08:24 > 0:08:28I'd never been there before and I went on my first safari with Cherry.

0:08:28 > 0:08:30Of course,

0:08:30 > 0:08:35it was very difficult in those days to what it is today

0:08:35 > 0:08:40although... And the early days of Cherry, for instance, when he had to cross rivers

0:08:40 > 0:08:43and that sort of thing, he had to walk on foot.

0:08:43 > 0:08:46- But he went really in the hard way, you know?- Yes.

0:08:46 > 0:08:51He had such a wonderful way of understanding animals.

0:08:51 > 0:08:54I found him very interesting.

0:08:54 > 0:08:59Kearton combined a love of wildlife with a taste for adventure.

0:08:59 > 0:09:05And I think that's a combination that most wildlife film-makers have had ever since.

0:09:05 > 0:09:08Of course, the advent of commercial air travel

0:09:08 > 0:09:12and lighter camera equipment did make things a little bit easier.

0:09:12 > 0:09:19Nevertheless, getting to some remote locations was, and still is...

0:09:19 > 0:09:21pretty difficult.

0:09:21 > 0:09:23Whoa!

0:09:25 > 0:09:30And a 1956 version of David Attenborough agrees with me.

0:09:31 > 0:09:38A month ago, Charles Lagus and I returned from spending four months in search of a dragon.

0:09:38 > 0:09:44Or, to put it another way, in search of the largest lizard in the world.

0:09:44 > 0:09:50It lives on one tiny little island in the South Pacific, and nowhere else in the world at all.

0:09:50 > 0:09:52The name of the island is Komodo.

0:09:52 > 0:09:56And I have to admit that before we started planning this expedition,

0:09:56 > 0:09:59I had no idea where Komodo was and had to look for it on the map.

0:09:59 > 0:10:03The first night we went onto a coral reef, bumping up and down.

0:10:03 > 0:10:07The captain was asleep, so we poled ourselves off the coral reef.

0:10:07 > 0:10:09The next night we were becalmed.

0:10:09 > 0:10:12And the next day I went down to him and I said,

0:10:12 > 0:10:15"You have been there before, haven't you?" And he said,

0:10:15 > 0:10:18"Blmmm..." I looked up and he said, "Not yet!" You see?

0:10:20 > 0:10:26So, at last, we sailed safely into the wide, calm bay of Komodo.

0:10:26 > 0:10:30This was the home of the dragon which we'd come so far to see.

0:10:42 > 0:10:47Within half an hour, there was a rustle in the bush and there was the dragon.

0:10:47 > 0:10:53He looked almost as though he had walked out of some prehistoric age.

0:10:55 > 0:10:57This was tremendously exciting for us,

0:10:57 > 0:11:00our first sight of this magnificent monster,

0:11:00 > 0:11:03the climax of four months of arduous travel.

0:11:07 > 0:11:09And getting to

0:11:09 > 0:11:12unexplored places still isn't straightforward.

0:11:12 > 0:11:14As cameraman Gavin Thurston found out

0:11:14 > 0:11:17when he set off to film lowland gorillas in the Congo.

0:11:26 > 0:11:29Eight hours after leaving Gatwick...

0:11:29 > 0:11:32- Are we at the wrong airport? - Yes, we're at the wrong airport.

0:11:34 > 0:11:38Day two and the crew manage to find the right airport.

0:11:41 > 0:11:43All right James, heads or tails?

0:11:43 > 0:11:44Erm...tails.

0:11:44 > 0:11:47- Do we know which side tails are yet? - Yeah.

0:11:47 > 0:11:49- That is tails.- So where am I?

0:11:49 > 0:11:52You can decide. I'll go in front.

0:11:55 > 0:11:59Day three, a 17-hour dusty truck journey

0:11:59 > 0:12:03in a vehicle that isn't... Well, it isn't exactly a Rolls Royce.

0:12:03 > 0:12:07How's the journey, guys?

0:12:07 > 0:12:08What do you think?

0:12:13 > 0:12:16And after that none too luxurious ride, not even a shower,

0:12:16 > 0:12:22they're into canoes for a 14-hour trip down the Congo.

0:12:28 > 0:12:30Just the bare essentials on this trip.

0:12:30 > 0:12:32Day six,

0:12:32 > 0:12:38just when they think they've arrived there's still three hours to go - on foot.

0:12:38 > 0:12:40It's actually quite a pleasant walk.

0:12:40 > 0:12:44Shame we have to cart all this blooming film gear with us.

0:13:02 > 0:13:06(We've finally arrived at the first of the three.

0:13:06 > 0:13:10(Amazingly, we've seen our first silverback gorilla.

0:13:10 > 0:13:13(It's encouraging to know that they're actually here.

0:13:13 > 0:13:16(We've seen one within the first few minutes.)

0:13:16 > 0:13:20Frankly, to see the animal you're hoping to film within the first few minutes

0:13:20 > 0:13:23is, um, a miracle.

0:13:23 > 0:13:25It's one of the...

0:13:25 > 0:13:29inescapable facts of wildlife filming,

0:13:29 > 0:13:31or indeed wildlife watching,

0:13:31 > 0:13:35it doesn't matter how far you've travelled or how arduous the journey,

0:13:35 > 0:13:41there's absolutely no guarantee whatsoever that what you're hoping to see will turn up immediately.

0:13:41 > 0:13:43Or will turn up at all.

0:13:45 > 0:13:47Scene 10, take two.

0:13:50 > 0:13:55And I can't see a single hare.

0:13:55 > 0:13:57Well, that's the problem.

0:13:57 > 0:14:00You've got, first of all, to find your hares,

0:14:00 > 0:14:04- and then to get close to them without alarming them.- Cut!

0:14:04 > 0:14:07This is the tropical rainforest,

0:14:07 > 0:14:11famous for being the richest proliferation of life on earth.

0:14:11 > 0:14:14So, where are the animals?

0:14:14 > 0:14:16Bill, what's happening?

0:14:16 > 0:14:18Well, I suppose the word

0:14:18 > 0:14:21that would sum it up at the moment, Kate, is nothing.

0:14:21 > 0:14:27- Simon, yes?- Bill, I'm with you, mate. There's absolutely nothing at all happening here either.

0:14:27 > 0:14:29Well, here I am, I'm looking at the monitors.

0:14:32 > 0:14:34Look at my screen here.

0:14:34 > 0:14:38We've got these infra-red lights on various things.

0:14:38 > 0:14:40And what have we got up there at the moment?

0:14:40 > 0:14:43Channel One, we have absolutely nothing.

0:14:43 > 0:14:48Well, I'll be honest, I can't see anything at all, so I'm not going to bother to show them to you.

0:14:48 > 0:14:50Some animals aren't just camera shy.

0:14:50 > 0:14:54They take elusiveness to the brink of invisibility.

0:14:54 > 0:14:58When cameraman Doug Allen set off to film snow leopards

0:14:58 > 0:15:03in the Himalayas, it certainly tested his patience.

0:15:03 > 0:15:05This is tedious stuff.

0:15:05 > 0:15:09This is the seventh session that I've done.

0:15:09 > 0:15:12I do three hours in the morning, three hours in the late afternoon.

0:15:12 > 0:15:14Not a sign.

0:15:15 > 0:15:21If you got just a little bit of hint, a wee bit of a sighting

0:15:21 > 0:15:24now and again, your spirits would be lifted.

0:15:24 > 0:15:26But right now

0:15:26 > 0:15:29I'd swap a little bit of this animal's charisma

0:15:29 > 0:15:32for a little bit more visibility.

0:15:32 > 0:15:36MUSIC: "Air on a G String" by J S Bach

0:15:36 > 0:15:39Five days.

0:15:39 > 0:15:41That's 35 hours of watching.

0:15:43 > 0:15:46Nothing. No cats.

0:15:55 > 0:15:58After seven weeks of waiting,

0:15:58 > 0:16:01Doug did get a glimpse of the elusive snow leopard,

0:16:01 > 0:16:05but surely not enough to make a proper sequence?

0:16:06 > 0:16:10In the Gobi Desert the bactrian camels proved to be

0:16:10 > 0:16:13almost as reluctant to be filmed as the snow leopard.

0:16:13 > 0:16:17It was eight days before this crew got their first sighting of camels.

0:16:17 > 0:16:23And even then it was just their rear ends disappearing into the distance.

0:16:23 > 0:16:24About...

0:16:24 > 0:16:28three or four kilometres away. They spotted us from that distance.

0:16:28 > 0:16:30That's going to be a problem, getting close.

0:16:30 > 0:16:33They're capable of spotting us from about five kilometres,

0:16:33 > 0:16:35and running for 70ks in the opposite direction.

0:16:35 > 0:16:39So this is what's going to make the filming incredibly difficult.

0:16:41 > 0:16:42It wasn't until day 36

0:16:42 > 0:16:47that they got pictures of anything except camels running away.

0:16:49 > 0:16:52ATTENBOROUGH: Not only did they start getting head shots of camels,

0:16:52 > 0:16:54but fascinating behaviour.

0:16:57 > 0:17:01Strange mating rituals and snow eating.

0:17:01 > 0:17:03CAMEL CHIRPS

0:17:05 > 0:17:10Wild camels remain one of our planet's least known animals, so this unique footage

0:17:10 > 0:17:15was much-needed publicity for a species on the verge of extinction.

0:17:15 > 0:17:19BAYING GROAN

0:17:19 > 0:17:24One year later, proof that wildlife filmmakers don't give up easily.

0:17:24 > 0:17:29A new location, a new team, an old quest - that elusive cat again.

0:17:33 > 0:17:38This time they had to dodge falling boulders.

0:17:38 > 0:17:41But luck was on their side.

0:17:41 > 0:17:45We just got a report that there's a snow leopard up on the ridge.

0:17:45 > 0:17:48We're too low where we were before.

0:17:48 > 0:17:52Just trying to get some height just to get a better view of it.

0:17:58 > 0:18:04And there it was, exactly as they'd been told.

0:18:06 > 0:18:13Mark was lucky enough to spend two weeks filming the intricate behaviour of this gorgeous leopard

0:18:13 > 0:18:15in the remote mountains of Pakistan.

0:18:20 > 0:18:27But, most exciting of all, was the sequence he managed to get on the very last day of filming.

0:19:01 > 0:19:06The cameraman's dream - that happy coincidence of patience and luck.

0:19:06 > 0:19:12Many of the most magic moments from wildlife films have been when a cameraman has managed

0:19:12 > 0:19:16to bring pictures from somewhere we thought was surely impossible.

0:19:16 > 0:19:20Well, in the 1950s, there was a German cameraman, Heinz Sielmann,

0:19:20 > 0:19:24who changed the direction of wildlife films forever,

0:19:24 > 0:19:29because he was determined to show us things never before seen with the naked eye.

0:19:29 > 0:19:35For example, what goes on inside a nest hole?

0:19:37 > 0:19:42And the bird he chose to do this with was the woodpecker.

0:19:49 > 0:19:51Hello. Good evening.

0:19:51 > 0:19:56Now Heinz Sielmann has come all the way from Munich to show us the film tonight

0:19:56 > 0:19:59and so here he is and we're very pleased to see you here Heinz.

0:19:59 > 0:20:06Well, I was successful in finding a black woodpecker's nest

0:20:06 > 0:20:12which was not higher up than about 20 yards.

0:20:12 > 0:20:14- 20 feet?- 20 feet, pardon!

0:20:14 > 0:20:16- That's high enough anyway!- Oh, yes!

0:20:16 > 0:20:18To make a hole in the back of the nest,

0:20:18 > 0:20:21Heinz could only chisel for 30 minutes every five hours

0:20:21 > 0:20:26to ensure that the birds continued to incubate.

0:20:26 > 0:20:31After 10 days, he put in a pane of glass surrounded by a camouflaged hide.

0:20:31 > 0:20:36He then spent a further eight days accustoming the birds to electric light

0:20:36 > 0:20:41so that's a total of 18 days before getting a single shot.

0:20:41 > 0:20:46Well now, can we see the pictures that you took in the back of the...

0:20:46 > 0:20:49- I hope we were successful by that work.- Yes.

0:20:49 > 0:20:52And back in the wood,

0:20:52 > 0:20:56where the nests are, here's the black woodpecker bringing food

0:20:56 > 0:20:59to its newly hatched young and, now, down she goes,

0:20:59 > 0:21:01inside the nest.

0:21:01 > 0:21:05Like Father Christmas coming down the chimney.

0:21:06 > 0:21:08She wakes the young ones up

0:21:08 > 0:21:11and she feeds each one by regurgitation.

0:21:12 > 0:21:15Of course they're blind when they hatch out

0:21:15 > 0:21:19and very undeveloped. It think it's really very exciting

0:21:19 > 0:21:22to think of these pictures, the first pictures ever taken of woodpeckers

0:21:22 > 0:21:25actually inside their nesting hole.

0:21:25 > 0:21:30When his woodpecker film came just suddenly into our Look programme

0:21:30 > 0:21:33it really revolutionised it that night.

0:21:33 > 0:21:36The switchboard was jammed for an hour or so afterwards.

0:21:36 > 0:21:42It got the biggest appreciation figure the BBC had ever had except for the Coronation.

0:21:42 > 0:21:43And it pointed the way.

0:21:43 > 0:21:48Heinz had set a new standard for everyone else to follow.

0:22:52 > 0:22:54The huge popularity

0:22:54 > 0:22:58of Heinz Sielmann's films indicated the public's appetite

0:22:58 > 0:23:02for seeing things from a new angle, or new perspective

0:23:02 > 0:23:05but the fact of the matter is that for quite some time,

0:23:05 > 0:23:07some of the very best places

0:23:07 > 0:23:10and some of the most interesting wildlife

0:23:10 > 0:23:12was quite literally unfilmable

0:23:12 > 0:23:18and the reason is that film requires quite a lot of light in order to register an image

0:23:18 > 0:23:21and quite a lot of wildlife, on the other hand,

0:23:21 > 0:23:24prefers to live in places that are distinctly murky.

0:23:30 > 0:23:33The first time we went into a rainforest in West Africa,

0:23:33 > 0:23:37Charles Lagus, who was the cameraman, looked up and said,

0:23:37 > 0:23:40"Well, we can't film. There's simply not enough light."

0:23:40 > 0:23:44There are few large animals in the West African forest

0:23:44 > 0:23:47and the only one we have any chance of seeing is a monkey.

0:23:47 > 0:23:51There's one sitting hidden in the treetop quietly feeding.

0:23:51 > 0:23:55So, in fact, what we did was to largely film

0:23:55 > 0:23:58just very wide-angle scenes of Jack tramping around

0:23:58 > 0:24:02and all the detailed close-ups of the animals we actually did in the studio.

0:24:02 > 0:24:05As more and more sensitive film stock

0:24:05 > 0:24:08was developed it was no longer necessary to cheat the shots.

0:24:08 > 0:24:11By 1990, Sir David could film

0:24:11 > 0:24:15the superb bird of paradise deep in the tropical undergrowth.

0:24:15 > 0:24:17And 17 years later,

0:24:17 > 0:24:21the high-definition camera rendered the same bird

0:24:21 > 0:24:22crystal clear.

0:24:22 > 0:24:27MUSIC: "Dance Of The Hours" from "La Gioconda" by Amilcare Ponchielli

0:24:37 > 0:24:40But there was an even bigger challenge

0:24:40 > 0:24:43than filming in the half-light of a tropical rainforest.

0:24:43 > 0:24:47A huge number of animals, rather inconveniently,

0:24:47 > 0:24:49are only active at night.

0:24:53 > 0:24:59When producer Amanda Barrett and cameraman Owen Newman set off to film leopards in the Serengeti

0:24:59 > 0:25:02they began by using light-sensitive video cameras

0:25:02 > 0:25:04that could produce colour images

0:25:04 > 0:25:08even with low levels of light, for example at dusk.

0:25:12 > 0:25:15But they soon discovered that leopards only like to hunt

0:25:15 > 0:25:17when it's absolutely pitch dark

0:25:17 > 0:25:20because it's then that they're invisible to their prey.

0:25:22 > 0:25:27So the crew change plan and they began to film with infra-red.

0:25:27 > 0:25:31Infra-red can only produce images in black and white

0:25:31 > 0:25:35but the advantage is it's invisible to wildlife which means

0:25:35 > 0:25:38it just carries on behaving naturally.

0:25:38 > 0:25:41And the exciting thing was at night

0:25:41 > 0:25:44the way they were stalking in the open.

0:25:44 > 0:25:48They were using the cover of darkness to creep up on the animals.

0:25:48 > 0:25:52The antelope were using their ears and noses to detect

0:25:52 > 0:25:54any danger that was out there

0:25:54 > 0:25:57and so the leopard had to be incredibly quiet

0:25:57 > 0:25:59and the first time we saw a leopard

0:25:59 > 0:26:02stalking in the open, putting just one foot down,

0:26:02 > 0:26:05it would take maybe two minutes to find a place

0:26:05 > 0:26:08where its foot was able just to find

0:26:08 > 0:26:11a bit of ground that wasn't rustling.

0:26:11 > 0:26:15It would put it there, it would stay and all the time

0:26:15 > 0:26:17just concentrating on ahead.

0:26:35 > 0:26:37ANTELOPE SNORTS

0:26:46 > 0:26:49In their eagerness to snatch a kill,

0:26:49 > 0:26:51hyenas try to shadow hunting leopards

0:26:51 > 0:26:55but with their clumsy attempts to find the leopard in the dark

0:26:55 > 0:26:58they often interrupt and spoil a hunt.

0:26:58 > 0:27:01The invisible nature of infra-red lights means that at least

0:27:01 > 0:27:05the film-makers won't be the ones to spoil the hunt.

0:27:08 > 0:27:10LEOPARD GROWLS

0:27:10 > 0:27:13Elephants might not enter these caves in Kenya

0:27:13 > 0:27:15if they sense a camera crew inside

0:27:15 > 0:27:20but with remote infra-red cameras David Attenborough could remain out of sight

0:27:20 > 0:27:23and still find out what was luring the elephants underground.

0:27:23 > 0:27:27It sounds like distant thunder.

0:27:27 > 0:27:30ELEPHANTS SNORTS

0:27:32 > 0:27:34(It's an elephant.)

0:27:44 > 0:27:47Every foot is being placed very carefully.

0:27:54 > 0:27:55Oh!

0:27:55 > 0:28:00He bumped his head! Well, no-one's perfect!

0:28:03 > 0:28:04THUD!

0:28:04 > 0:28:10The passage here is so narrow the big male can only just squeeze through.

0:28:15 > 0:28:18RASPING

0:28:20 > 0:28:24And now I can hear that noise.

0:28:24 > 0:28:27He's using his tusks to carve out the salt

0:28:27 > 0:28:30and, of course, it's falling to the ground

0:28:30 > 0:28:34so what he does now is use his trunk

0:28:34 > 0:28:40to sniff it up and then blow it into his mouth. You can hear that too.

0:28:41 > 0:28:43SUCKING SNIFF

0:28:43 > 0:28:46RASPING PUFF

0:28:46 > 0:28:50So infra-red cameras have helped discover what goes on

0:28:50 > 0:28:53in the darkness of the night and inside caves but that's not all.

0:28:53 > 0:28:55They've also revealed

0:28:55 > 0:29:00some of the secrets of the beaver's private life.

0:29:00 > 0:29:04No-one knew exactly what went on inside the lodge during winter

0:29:04 > 0:29:06so when the beavers were away

0:29:06 > 0:29:10we installed a couple of infra-red cameras in order to find out.

0:29:15 > 0:29:19A branch from the fridge is being brought back to the lodge

0:29:19 > 0:29:21for the whole family to feed on.

0:29:26 > 0:29:28And another.

0:29:32 > 0:29:36No wonder they don't need to hibernate with this ingenious set up.

0:29:36 > 0:29:38The lodge is warm and safe,

0:29:38 > 0:29:41even in midwinter, and the only sign of activity

0:29:41 > 0:29:45in the snug home beneath the snow is hot-air

0:29:45 > 0:29:47rising from the vent at the top.

0:29:55 > 0:30:00Inside, our cameras catch a glimpse of what, at first sight,

0:30:00 > 0:30:02looks like a very small beaver.

0:30:04 > 0:30:07It's a muskrat.

0:30:07 > 0:30:09There are a pair of them in here.

0:30:09 > 0:30:12This is a new observation.

0:30:12 > 0:30:18Do the beavers actually know, in the pitch blackness, that there are strangers among them?

0:30:24 > 0:30:28We notice that the muskrats regularly left the lodge

0:30:28 > 0:30:30to forage under the ice.

0:30:31 > 0:30:35And, on several occasions, they returned a few minutes later

0:30:35 > 0:30:37with a load of fresh reeds.

0:30:39 > 0:30:41Perhaps the muskrats are paying rent

0:30:41 > 0:30:45by regularly providing fresh bedding for the lodge?

0:30:55 > 0:30:58Maybe that is why the beavers accept them

0:30:58 > 0:31:01and even allow them to share their food.

0:31:13 > 0:31:18Our infra-red lights, however, are no longer welcome, it seems.

0:31:21 > 0:31:26The fact is, with ever-advancing technology, you can film just about anything.

0:31:26 > 0:31:30If it's dark - night camera. Just a long way away - telephoto lens.

0:31:30 > 0:31:33And if it's very, very small, well, time was

0:31:33 > 0:31:35you'd have to use a microscope.

0:31:35 > 0:31:41But, the world of microscopes and cameras was beginning to converge.

0:31:41 > 0:31:43Ooh, there you go!

0:31:45 > 0:31:51One of the first to try his hand with macro-photography was pioneering cameraman Percy Smith.

0:31:51 > 0:31:54The trouble was, the lenses needed to magnify

0:31:54 > 0:31:58such tiny creatures required an awful lot of light.

0:31:58 > 0:32:01And lights are hot. So, to put not too fine a point on it,

0:32:01 > 0:32:05the heat often fried the insects he was trying to film.

0:32:07 > 0:32:11So, some clever bods at Oxford Scientific Films,

0:32:11 > 0:32:13Gerald Thompson and Eric Skinner, devised a way

0:32:13 > 0:32:16of defusing heat given off from their massive lights

0:32:16 > 0:32:20so that they could film tiny insects without cooking them.

0:32:22 > 0:32:25Basically, they created a cooling system

0:32:25 > 0:32:29with a flask of water and some glass heat filters.

0:32:29 > 0:32:33Having done that, they could get images like these.

0:32:33 > 0:32:34Ah, lovely.

0:32:34 > 0:32:36Yes!

0:32:36 > 0:32:38Jolly good!

0:32:38 > 0:32:42Today, the high-definition camera is sensitive enough to film animals

0:32:42 > 0:32:45as small as insects

0:32:45 > 0:32:47with minimal light

0:32:47 > 0:32:50and lenses can now be smaller than a fingernail.

0:32:53 > 0:32:59Combine that with a motion-control system like this one designed by cameraman Martin Dawn

0:32:59 > 0:33:04and we can see insects on their level and get a real sense

0:33:04 > 0:33:08of what it's like to live in their world.

0:33:10 > 0:33:12You get a lovely sense of motion,

0:33:12 > 0:33:14a sense of tracking.

0:33:14 > 0:33:17You can, you know... Flying in a helicopter, at the moment,

0:33:17 > 0:33:20over these extraordinary gigantic plants.

0:33:20 > 0:33:24It's just given me, and hopefully others,

0:33:24 > 0:33:26a new perspective on the world.

0:33:26 > 0:33:33A miniature world inhabited by animals smaller than a pinhead.

0:33:34 > 0:33:35They are tiny.

0:33:35 > 0:33:39This minute little creature is a springtail.

0:33:39 > 0:33:42It is less than half a millimetre long -

0:33:42 > 0:33:44the size of a full stop.

0:33:45 > 0:33:51Drying out is a very real danger for them and some waterproof themselves

0:33:51 > 0:33:55regularly with a droplet of special grooming fluid.

0:33:55 > 0:34:00You might even say that they have turned bathing

0:34:00 > 0:34:02into an art form.

0:34:06 > 0:34:12They even have two inflatable tubes that enable them to get to

0:34:12 > 0:34:14those hard-to-reach places.

0:34:16 > 0:34:21To help them get around through the leaf litter, these springtails,

0:34:21 > 0:34:26as their name suggests, have a rather novel way of jumping.

0:34:32 > 0:34:34They have a tiny two-pronged lever

0:34:34 > 0:34:37beneath their abdomen.

0:34:37 > 0:34:38One small flick from it can catapult them

0:34:38 > 0:34:40six inches, some 15 centimetres,

0:34:40 > 0:34:43into the air.

0:34:48 > 0:34:52It's the equivalent of a human being jumping over the Eiffel Tower.

0:34:56 > 0:34:58And if they happen to land upside down,

0:34:59 > 0:35:01well...

0:35:01 > 0:35:04they have a special way of righting themselves.

0:35:04 > 0:35:08They use their grooming fluid dispenser to stick on to the ground

0:35:08 > 0:35:11so that they can pull themselves back onto their feet.

0:35:18 > 0:35:21One of the great contributions of macro technology

0:35:21 > 0:35:27has been that it has made visible, fascinating and even endearing

0:35:27 > 0:35:29some of those creatures that people find...

0:35:29 > 0:35:35well, not exactly attractive or positively scary.

0:35:35 > 0:35:40Talking of scary, there is one habitat, or maybe I should say environment,

0:35:40 > 0:35:45that I personally admit do find a teeny bit terrifying,

0:35:45 > 0:35:50but other people find it a vast and wondrous challenge.

0:35:50 > 0:35:54I am talking, of course, of underwater.

0:35:58 > 0:36:01As early as 1913 an American,

0:36:01 > 0:36:03John Ernest Williamson was already having a go

0:36:03 > 0:36:09at underwater filming in a diving bell made by...himself.

0:36:09 > 0:36:12He even took his baby daughter down to show

0:36:12 > 0:36:14just how safe it was.

0:36:14 > 0:36:17A 30 ft tube connecting the diving bell to the surface

0:36:17 > 0:36:21gave Williamson a constant supply of air.

0:36:24 > 0:36:28Filming through a glass window, he brought back the first moving images

0:36:28 > 0:36:31anyone had ever seen of life underwater.

0:36:33 > 0:36:36The drawback was everything had to happen right in front of the window

0:36:36 > 0:36:39otherwise he missed it.

0:36:44 > 0:36:48In the 1950s, German film-maker Hans Hass

0:36:48 > 0:36:50came up with a method of filming underwater

0:36:50 > 0:36:52and moving at the same time.

0:36:54 > 0:36:57So far, we had only been doing natural diving,

0:36:57 > 0:37:01but I had equipment for two alternatives to this

0:37:01 > 0:37:03and I wanted to put these to the test.

0:37:03 > 0:37:08The first was an air pump with a pipeline leading to a diving helmet.

0:37:08 > 0:37:12It was made of a transparent plastic

0:37:12 > 0:37:15and simply stood on the wearer's shoulders.

0:37:15 > 0:37:18Alfred was to try it first and Hans was to pump.

0:37:18 > 0:37:23Movement was limited because the air supply was still attached to the boat.

0:37:23 > 0:37:28I went to see how Alfred was making out and he seemed very happy indeed.

0:37:33 > 0:37:39Hans pumped away in the boat and, for the first time, Alfred was not at the mercy of his lungs.

0:37:39 > 0:37:44He could breathe as easily as if he were on land

0:37:44 > 0:37:47and, so long as he kept within the range of the air tube,

0:37:47 > 0:37:50could wander at will on the bed of the sea.

0:37:58 > 0:38:02My second piece of apparatus was much more exciting

0:38:02 > 0:38:04and I resolved to give no-one but myself

0:38:04 > 0:38:08the pleasure of going below with this for the first time.

0:38:08 > 0:38:11It was a lightweight oxygen equipment,

0:38:11 > 0:38:17one of the earliest ever made. Xenophon helped me to put it on.

0:38:26 > 0:38:30Just as one's first glimpse of a foreign land, one's first flight,

0:38:30 > 0:38:34one's first love remains forever implanted in the memory,

0:38:34 > 0:38:36so does my first underwater exploration

0:38:36 > 0:38:38with portable oxygen equipment.

0:38:38 > 0:38:41Gone is every shackle, gone is the tyranny of the lungs,

0:38:41 > 0:38:44the deadly oppression that forces you to surface

0:38:44 > 0:38:49every minute or two just when the most exciting vistas are opening before your eyes.

0:38:52 > 0:38:58The development of the portable air tank was to revolutionise underwater filming.

0:38:58 > 0:39:01It freed up the cameraman to move around at will

0:39:01 > 0:39:06instead of waiting for wildlife to come to him, he could go to them.

0:39:11 > 0:39:14Since the first attempts with diving bells and air pumps,

0:39:14 > 0:39:19underwater filming has surpassed all expectation.

0:40:39 > 0:40:43Of course, we like to see films about the animals we like best.

0:40:43 > 0:40:47And it seems we can't get enough of the ones that remind us of ourselves.

0:40:47 > 0:40:50The ones that WALK like us.

0:40:50 > 0:40:54The ones that LOOK like us.

0:40:54 > 0:41:00And we tend to take the next step of assuming that they probably THINK like us.

0:41:00 > 0:41:03Maybe have emotions like us.

0:41:03 > 0:41:05Even BEHAVE like us.

0:41:05 > 0:41:10But, of course, we can't resist the cute and the cuddly.

0:41:10 > 0:41:15And we also love the frisson of the big and scary.

0:41:19 > 0:41:25For programmes to sell well on the international market, they must have universal appeal.

0:41:28 > 0:41:32So, what are the ingredients for a successful blockbuster TV series?

0:41:32 > 0:41:38Well, excitement, action, marvellous pictures, wonderful sound, yeah.

0:41:38 > 0:41:43It must have been a bit of a shock to the producers at the BBC Natural History Unit

0:41:43 > 0:41:48when, in the early 1990s, David Attenborough suggested the subject for his next series.

0:41:48 > 0:41:50We heard that David had an idea.

0:41:50 > 0:41:53He wanted to come up with his next series

0:41:53 > 0:41:56and I was thinking on the same lines, so we went to his house.

0:41:56 > 0:41:59David has always listened to our idea,

0:41:59 > 0:42:04and he nodded and was very complimentary about it, and he said,

0:42:04 > 0:42:06"I was thinking about something a bit bolder."

0:42:06 > 0:42:11And by the end of lunch, we had all signed up to do six hours on plants.

0:42:11 > 0:42:14I remember coming down the motorway back to Bristol.

0:42:14 > 0:42:17Suddenly we all looked at each other and thought, "My God!

0:42:17 > 0:42:22"We've agreed with David to do six hours on PLANTS"!

0:42:22 > 0:42:26A series aptly called The Private Life Of Plants.

0:42:28 > 0:42:36It was such a ridiculous idea to try and bring to the BBC1 audience things that don't move.

0:42:36 > 0:42:40But it ended up really capturing people's imagination.

0:42:40 > 0:42:42Strange though it may seem,

0:42:42 > 0:42:46some plants can move not just their flowers and their leaves,

0:42:46 > 0:42:49but they can travel from place to place.

0:42:49 > 0:42:52Take, for example, this bramble.

0:42:55 > 0:43:01Put brambles into fast-forward and they take on a life of their own.

0:43:02 > 0:43:06Instead of taking 25 pictures a second, as film cameras do,

0:43:06 > 0:43:09the process of time-lapse takes pictures much less frequently.

0:43:09 > 0:43:14When the image is played back, this is the result.

0:43:19 > 0:43:24We see a world we are normally blind to because we're moving at a very different pace.

0:44:20 > 0:44:23Apart from showing plants in a new light,

0:44:23 > 0:44:30time-lapse photography has also revealed fascinating relationships in the natural world.

0:44:30 > 0:44:33When filming a private life of plants in Borneo,

0:44:33 > 0:44:37the crew noted that the leaves of the ginger plant were heavily damaged.

0:44:38 > 0:44:42Look at this. Clearly, it is a badly damaged leaf.

0:44:42 > 0:44:46But where is the creature that is doing the damage?

0:44:47 > 0:44:52By speeding up events, we could find out just what was going on.

0:44:52 > 0:44:54This is it - a tiny caterpillar.

0:44:54 > 0:44:56It's soft, it's defenceless.

0:44:56 > 0:45:00It's clearly an excellent mouthful for many a bird.

0:45:00 > 0:45:05So if it is to survive, it has to take steps to protect itself.

0:45:14 > 0:45:19It starts by making a semicircular cut into the leaf from the margin.

0:45:30 > 0:45:33But when the cut is only half complete, it starts from the other end.

0:45:33 > 0:45:37It spins silk across the hinge.

0:45:37 > 0:45:44That, as it dries, contracts, and helps the caterpillar pull over the segment to form a roof.

0:45:44 > 0:45:48To make its tent a little more commodious, it cuts a pleat,

0:45:48 > 0:45:53pulls it across, and now it it's got a little wigwam.

0:45:58 > 0:46:04The whole process only takes a few hours and is usually done at night when there are no birds around.

0:46:06 > 0:46:08Now the caterpillar can feed in safety -

0:46:08 > 0:46:14shaving off the soft surface layers of the leaf, out of the sight of any hungry bird.

0:46:14 > 0:46:17And at significant cost to the plant.

0:46:40 > 0:46:44Whilst plants need speeding up for us to see what is really going on,

0:46:44 > 0:46:49most animals can be appreciated better by slowing them down.

0:46:52 > 0:46:56Its torpedo shape, strong jaws and awesome muscle power

0:46:56 > 0:47:01make the great white the most powerful of all predatory sharks.

0:47:01 > 0:47:04It's the lion of the ocean.

0:47:12 > 0:47:16As early as 1934, a film about gannets

0:47:16 > 0:47:19used the technique of slow-motion to show, for the first time,

0:47:19 > 0:47:22exactly how these birds were using their wings to land.

0:47:22 > 0:47:26When landing, the gannet seems to just flop down anyhow,

0:47:26 > 0:47:30but slow-motion reveals controlled power.

0:47:30 > 0:47:33The tail spread as a brake, the wings beating backwards

0:47:33 > 0:47:37to reduce the speed, the feet outstretched to take the shock.

0:47:37 > 0:47:39They must land exactly on their own nest

0:47:39 > 0:47:43or they'll be pecked and harried by the birds through whose territories they pass.

0:47:43 > 0:47:45Here's the perfect landing.

0:47:45 > 0:47:50This revelation won the film-makers the US Academy Award,

0:47:50 > 0:47:54now known as the Oscar for best one-reel short subject.

0:47:54 > 0:47:58Slow motion shows the full beauty and strength of their flight.

0:47:58 > 0:48:04At that time, it was only possible to film at a slightly higher speed than normal but today

0:48:04 > 0:48:11specialised video cameras can slow down action as much as 1,000 times, turning seconds into minutes.

0:48:14 > 0:48:20This was a technique used in the BBC series, Animal Camera.

0:48:20 > 0:48:26The mantis shrimp - voracious hunter of the coral reefs, with probably the fastest punch of any animal.

0:48:26 > 0:48:29Devastating to even the hardest snails.

0:48:33 > 0:48:35How the shrimp generates the force to do this

0:48:35 > 0:48:40has baffled scientists for years - until now, that is.

0:48:43 > 0:48:47By combining the slow-motion camera with an underwater force meter,

0:48:47 > 0:48:50we can finally see the astonishing truth.

0:48:53 > 0:48:59The meter shows the shrimp's punch packs a staggering 60 kilograms of force.

0:49:02 > 0:49:04Not so much a punch

0:49:04 > 0:49:06as a hammer blow.

0:49:10 > 0:49:15This huge impact is all down to the sheer speed of the strike.

0:49:15 > 0:49:17Game over

0:49:17 > 0:49:20in 1,000th of a second.

0:49:21 > 0:49:25The speed comes from compressing this part of the claw

0:49:25 > 0:49:31and storing energy which is released in this explosive burst,

0:49:31 > 0:49:34with the acceleration of a bullet.

0:49:36 > 0:49:39The camera also revealed another amazing event...

0:49:41 > 0:49:42..flashes of light.

0:49:42 > 0:49:48Moments before impact, a pressure wave in front of the claw causes the water to boil.

0:49:48 > 0:49:55The steam immediately implodes, generating light, heat, and possibly adding to the destructive force.

0:50:06 > 0:50:10Slow motion may give us insights into animal behaviour but, above all,

0:50:10 > 0:50:14it's a magical way to see the natural world.

0:52:54 > 0:52:59There's no doubt that the main appeal of wildlife films is visual -

0:52:59 > 0:53:06stunning pictures that transport us to a different, magical world.

0:53:06 > 0:53:10A world in which human beings might be considered a bit of an intrusion.

0:53:10 > 0:53:16But back in the 1930s, undoubtedly the big advancement in the world of motion pictures

0:53:16 > 0:53:19was the coming of the talkies.

0:53:19 > 0:53:25And wildlife film-makers could hardly be expected to stick to making silent films.

0:53:25 > 0:53:28They wanted to get in front of the cameras, and some did.

0:53:28 > 0:53:34From Britain, there was Cherry Kearton. From America, there was Martin and Osa Johnson.

0:53:34 > 0:53:37And they had very different approaches which told us something

0:53:37 > 0:53:41about different attitudes to wildlife back in those days.

0:53:50 > 0:53:55Martin and Osa Johnson had a rather, um, showbiz approach to presenting.

0:53:55 > 0:54:00More Hollywood than documentary. The emphasis in their films was on THEM.

0:54:00 > 0:54:04The animals were simply props whilst they acted out their dramas.

0:54:04 > 0:54:09Now one of the rhinos has discovered Martin and Osa with their cameras.

0:54:09 > 0:54:12Slowly the great beast comes on, his huge horn menacing.

0:54:12 > 0:54:16In those days, it was great entertainment to see animals being shot.

0:54:16 > 0:54:20Minutes seem like hours to Osa, as she trains her gun on the animal,

0:54:20 > 0:54:23waiting until he is close enough to make a bullet effective,

0:54:23 > 0:54:26calling on all her skill for an aim that will be true.

0:54:26 > 0:54:29Closer and closer he comes.

0:54:29 > 0:54:31Hunting safaris were at their height

0:54:31 > 0:54:36and it was a time when the West saw nature as something not to be understood, but to be conquered.

0:54:38 > 0:54:42Osa lets go another bullet and the rhino rears into the air

0:54:42 > 0:54:46and thrashes madly about for a second and then drops dead in his tracks.

0:54:46 > 0:54:51The Johnsons employed Hollywood techniques like back projection to add to the drama.

0:54:54 > 0:54:58Closer and closer goes the boat, alert for whatever move the croc may make.

0:55:00 > 0:55:05And there it comes! There's a sudden lunge, and he throws himself straight at the boat.

0:55:05 > 0:55:08Phew! That was a close one. The party is all safe...

0:55:08 > 0:55:10They were...entertainers.

0:55:10 > 0:55:15Well, they had no knowledge of animal behaviour, that's for sure.

0:55:15 > 0:55:19There's a mean look in those eyes and she's about made up her mind to charge the boat.

0:55:31 > 0:55:36No, she's used her woman's privilege and changed her mind.

0:55:36 > 0:55:39Yes. Well, in fact, their patronising attitude to animals

0:55:39 > 0:55:43wasn't dissimilar to their attitude to people.

0:55:43 > 0:55:45Human monkeys.

0:55:49 > 0:55:53They're a tribe of natives whose homes and highways are in the tall trees.

0:56:00 > 0:56:04Watch out there, boy, that's a dead-end street.

0:56:04 > 0:56:09At about this time, I said to Osa, "Let's give the boys and girls some modern jazz."

0:56:09 > 0:56:13Yes, well, they were neither zoologists or anthropologists.

0:56:13 > 0:56:18In fact, Martin Johnson was normally a cook, and Osa a cabaret dancer,

0:56:18 > 0:56:22a career which he clearly wished to continue.

0:56:22 > 0:56:27Their condescending approach would be considered completely outrageous today, of course,

0:56:27 > 0:56:32but in America they were the most celebrated wildlife film-makers of the early 20th century.

0:56:32 > 0:56:36They made about 30 very popular movies before 1937,

0:56:36 > 0:56:41when Martin Johnson was killed in a plane crash in LA.

0:56:41 > 0:56:48And it was with deep regret that we said goodbye to the happiest little savages on Earth.

0:56:52 > 0:56:53In contrast to the Johnsons,

0:56:53 > 0:56:57Britain's first wildlife presenter, Cherry Kearton,

0:56:57 > 0:57:01was keen to make his subjects, not himself, the centre of the show.

0:57:01 > 0:57:07Ladies and gentlemen, let me put you out of your misery at once.

0:57:07 > 0:57:09You are not going to see me for long.

0:57:09 > 0:57:15Although I'm inviting you to come on this trip with me, you will only see me occasionally.

0:57:15 > 0:57:17For my story of Penguin Island

0:57:17 > 0:57:21is about the strangest little creatures

0:57:21 > 0:57:24that bear a remarkable resemblance to human beings.

0:57:24 > 0:57:29At first sight, they look like millions of tiny Charlie Chaplins,

0:57:29 > 0:57:31at least about the feet.

0:57:32 > 0:57:35Kearton's style was not only self-effacing,

0:57:35 > 0:57:40it was undeniably anthropomorphic and, if you like, popularist.

0:57:40 > 0:57:46But this was partly because, back in those days, there wasn't very much scientific knowledge.

0:57:46 > 0:57:51The fact is, though, Kearton had a genuine love for, and interest in, animals.

0:57:51 > 0:57:56I rested for a while on the terrace, watching a few thousands of my neighbours

0:57:56 > 0:58:00going about each other's business.

0:58:00 > 0:58:07Before long, I realised that unless I kept a close watch on my belongings, I'd feel the pinch.

0:58:07 > 0:58:11For pinching was a recognised profession in this land,

0:58:11 > 0:58:16a sort of "what's yours is mine if you're not looking" principle.

0:58:18 > 0:58:22Of course, for the filmmaker to be in front of the camera,

0:58:22 > 0:58:24somebody else had to be behind it.

0:58:24 > 0:58:27In Kearton's case, it was his wife, Ada.

0:58:27 > 0:58:32Am I right that when you were married, you gave up your singing career altogether?

0:58:32 > 0:58:36Oh, yes, I did. But I think you've been wondering WHY I gave it up.

0:58:36 > 0:58:41- Yes.- Well, because there's so many singers, but there was only one Cherry Kearton.

0:58:49 > 0:58:54He was a freelance performer.

0:58:54 > 0:58:59He had a passion for wildlife, of course, but he had to, as it were, sell it to an audience.

0:58:59 > 0:59:02And he sold it through his own personality.

0:59:07 > 0:59:15In 1940, Cherry Kearton died suddenly as he left the BBC's Broadcasting House in London.

0:59:18 > 0:59:21He was one of the great pioneers.

0:59:21 > 0:59:29He was as good as anybody in his time, and, I would have thought, ahead of almost everybody.

0:59:29 > 0:59:33And certainly in terms off affecting his audience,

0:59:33 > 0:59:37including small boys like me, he was out there on his own.

0:59:41 > 0:59:44Really, this is a wonderful sight.

0:59:44 > 0:59:52Five million penguins surrounding me, braying their national anthem and cheering me on my way.

0:59:52 > 0:59:55I am filled with sadness at leaving.

1:00:04 > 1:00:09Kearton managed to combine authoritative insight into animal behaviour

1:00:09 > 1:00:12with entertaining an audience.

1:00:12 > 1:00:19And that, to a lot of people, qualifies him as the rightful founder of wildlife film-making.

1:00:19 > 1:00:23Rather ironically, though, Kearton's death coincided with the birth of television -

1:00:23 > 1:00:30the medium, of course, in which wildlife presenters positively proliferated.

1:00:33 > 1:00:40Ironically, though, shortly after its arrival, TV shut down for the duration of the Second World War.

1:00:40 > 1:00:47And it wasn't until 1953 that wildlife programmes first appeared on the telly.

1:00:48 > 1:00:53The new presenters added authority and information to their films, changing the focus away

1:00:53 > 1:00:57from pure entertainment, perhaps in response to the post-war resolution

1:00:57 > 1:01:02to rebuild Britain through education.

1:01:02 > 1:01:04First and foremost was Sir Peter Scott.

1:01:06 > 1:01:11Peter Scott was the son of the famous Antarctic explorer Captain Scott,

1:01:11 > 1:01:15who died when Peter was five months old.

1:01:15 > 1:01:20It was his father's dying wish that his son would be interested in wildlife.

1:01:20 > 1:01:24My father really wanted me to be interested in natural history,

1:01:24 > 1:01:30and he wrote a message to my mother in the tent where he died in the Antarctic,

1:01:30 > 1:01:33which got found the next spring when they were there.

1:01:33 > 1:01:39And it was a letter in which he said, "Make the boy interested in natural history.

1:01:39 > 1:01:40"It is better than games.

1:01:40 > 1:01:43"They teach it at some schools."

1:01:43 > 1:01:47His father's wishes were most certainly granted.

1:01:47 > 1:01:50Peter Scott was to become knighted for his work in conservation.

1:01:52 > 1:01:58He set up the World Wildlife Fund and he sold many of his paintings to raise money.

1:01:58 > 1:02:02And he almost single-handedly saved this species,

1:02:02 > 1:02:07the Hawaiian goose, from extinction. And they're very grateful.

1:02:07 > 1:02:12What's more, Peter Scott presented the very first wildlife television programme,

1:02:12 > 1:02:17and he did it live from Slimbridge in Gloucestershire,

1:02:17 > 1:02:20which is exactly where I am now.

1:02:21 > 1:02:26Whilst he's doing that, I would like to show you one or two birds that we've got on the water here.

1:02:26 > 1:02:29Here are some red-breasted geese.

1:02:29 > 1:02:36In fact, ironically, Peter had started off as a wildfowler, one of the top punt gunners of his day.

1:02:36 > 1:02:41I'm bound to say that I passed through a period, and I don't...

1:02:41 > 1:02:42I hate remembering it,

1:02:42 > 1:02:44but I don't want to cover it up,

1:02:44 > 1:02:46because it's true.

1:02:46 > 1:02:47There was a time

1:02:47 > 1:02:50when I really took a great delight

1:02:50 > 1:02:53in successfully, er, killing.

1:02:53 > 1:02:54And this, I...

1:02:54 > 1:02:57I hate to think it was so,

1:02:57 > 1:02:58but it was so.

1:03:03 > 1:03:09Scott served in the Royal Navy during World War II, and he was twice decorated for bravery.

1:03:09 > 1:03:14But like many hunters, once war was over, he turned his back on shooting.

1:03:14 > 1:03:20When he came to Slimbridge, wildfowling was still going on here.

1:03:20 > 1:03:24And he saw a female goose, wounded female goose,

1:03:24 > 1:03:28lying out on the sands, and the male standing by it for hours on end.

1:03:28 > 1:03:34And I think he thought that wasn't very nice, and he decided he wasn't going to do any more shooting.

1:03:42 > 1:03:43Hello. Good evening.

1:03:43 > 1:03:50His best-known series, Look, like other programmes at this time, was broadcast live from a studio.

1:03:50 > 1:03:55Television cameras in the '50s were far too cumbersome to be taken into the field.

1:03:55 > 1:03:58Marvellous. Now, on your marks, get set, go.

1:03:58 > 1:04:02- Now don't go.- Do you want to get out? Come on.

1:04:02 > 1:04:08It ran for 12 years, surprising everyone by its popularity, not least Scott himself.

1:04:08 > 1:04:16Nobody believed natural history was going to be something that lots of people would want to look at.

1:04:16 > 1:04:19And then quite suddenly, when it took off,

1:04:19 > 1:04:22it became enormously exciting, because then one suddenly realised,

1:04:22 > 1:04:25"My goodness! We're getting to all these people."

1:04:25 > 1:04:28This is what I'd been dreaming about.

1:04:28 > 1:04:31And then it really was very exciting.

1:04:31 > 1:04:34A nice, restful job, snail watching.

1:04:34 > 1:04:37What Peter Scott was becoming the face of British wildlife programmes,

1:04:37 > 1:04:41competition was beginning to appear in the rest of Europe.

1:04:41 > 1:04:46GERMAN ACCENT: Here ve see Heinz Sielmann, engaged in a life-or-death struggle vith Peter Scott.

1:04:46 > 1:04:50They are engaged in a bitter punch-up over repeat fees

1:04:50 > 1:04:53and the overseas sales of their nature documentaries.

1:04:53 > 1:04:57Now they have been joined by an enraged Jacques Cousteau.

1:04:57 > 1:05:01Zis is typical of the harsh and bitchy vorld of television features.

1:05:01 > 1:05:05The dashing Frenchman Jacques Cousteau was becoming the face of underwater films,

1:05:05 > 1:05:08with cutting-edge images like these.

1:05:08 > 1:05:14Night and day, head to tail, in lockstep, the spiny lobsters march.

1:05:14 > 1:05:18Alongside the already known Austrian film-maker Hans Hass,

1:05:18 > 1:05:21who had now teamed up with his wife, Lotte.

1:05:21 > 1:05:27- LOTTE: - On this, my first dive with oxygen, I met and photographed a shark.

1:05:30 > 1:05:33Like Peter Scott, Hans had also been a keen hunter,

1:05:33 > 1:05:37but he and Lotte began to reflect the post-war feeling of the time.

1:05:37 > 1:05:43I discovered how much more exciting and how much more useful it would be

1:05:43 > 1:05:47if, instead of killing these trusting, defenceless creatures,

1:05:47 > 1:05:50I could photograph them in their natural surroundings.

1:05:50 > 1:05:52I don't like killing fish either.

1:05:52 > 1:05:54Until next time, then.

1:05:54 > 1:05:57OK, next time. Goodbye.

1:05:58 > 1:06:01And whilst these presenters became linked with underwater films,

1:06:01 > 1:06:07another husband-and-wife team became the faces of films about African wildlife.

1:06:08 > 1:06:10Armand and Michaela Denis from Belgium.

1:06:10 > 1:06:13The Search For Gertie.

1:06:13 > 1:06:17And it is the search for Gertie which brought us to Amboseli.

1:06:17 > 1:06:21- You had better explain who Gertie is.- Oh, yes.

1:06:21 > 1:06:24Here it is. A female rhinoceros.

1:06:24 > 1:06:31Well, they started at almost exactly the same time as I did, 1954.

1:06:31 > 1:06:35And they had lived in East Africa for years,

1:06:35 > 1:06:38and they had been filming on 16mm.

1:06:38 > 1:06:42They had decades of film material available.

1:06:42 > 1:06:48So much better to leave East Africa to them, who lived there, and concentrate on elsewhere.

1:06:48 > 1:06:53Which is exactly what David did, and continues to do.

1:06:53 > 1:06:56Here in the tiny Comoro Islands...

1:06:56 > 1:06:59Here in the tropical rainforest of Sumatra...

1:06:59 > 1:07:02Six feet beneath the surface of the Earth...

1:07:02 > 1:07:04200 miles south of Java...

1:07:04 > 1:07:07Fine ash is falling all around...

1:07:07 > 1:07:10At night, it gets so cold that it can freeze.

1:07:10 > 1:07:13That makes this the deepest valley in the world.

1:07:13 > 1:07:17This is one of the coldest places on Earth.

1:07:17 > 1:07:20Here, there's virtually no water at all.

1:07:20 > 1:07:23This is one of the wettest places on Earth.

1:07:23 > 1:07:26This is the biggest flower in the world.

1:07:26 > 1:07:29This snow is not white...

1:07:35 > 1:07:41This is the biggest creature that exists on the planet, the blue whale, and it's coming up.

1:07:41 > 1:07:44It's coming up! There!

1:07:46 > 1:07:50David's fascination for the natural world was kindled at a young age.

1:07:50 > 1:07:54The family used to go on holiday in North Wales, on Anglesey.

1:07:54 > 1:07:57Dave would disappear. You couldn't find Dave anywhere.

1:07:57 > 1:08:03He was on the beach, and would collect not only anything that moved, but fossils.

1:08:03 > 1:08:06He absolutely adored fossils.

1:08:07 > 1:08:11So, it was no surprise he would one day appear on our TV screens,

1:08:11 > 1:08:17grappling with animals in far-off places for his first series, Zoo Quest.

1:08:18 > 1:08:21The series involved catching wild animals for zoos,

1:08:21 > 1:08:25which isn't something you'd find Attenborough doing today.

1:08:25 > 1:08:29But it's a clear reminder of how attitudes have changed.

1:08:29 > 1:08:3250 years since his first TV appearance,

1:08:32 > 1:08:35it'd be hard to find anyone who doesn't recognise David Attenborough,

1:08:35 > 1:08:38or even an imitation of him.

1:08:38 > 1:08:44Tonight, on Life On Earth, we look at a creature whose survival in the modern world

1:08:44 > 1:08:48continues to baffle scientists and laymen alike.

1:08:48 > 1:08:53So, what is it about him that's made him so popular to this day?

1:08:53 > 1:08:55Is it his charisma? His credibility?

1:08:55 > 1:08:57His never-ending enthusiasm?

1:08:57 > 1:09:05Or his respectful, non-intrusive approach, which accounts for those characteristic hushed tones?

1:09:07 > 1:09:10There is more meaning

1:09:10 > 1:09:12and mutual understanding

1:09:12 > 1:09:16in exchanging a glance with a gorilla...

1:09:17 > 1:09:19..than any other animal I know.

1:09:23 > 1:09:27In contrast to many early presenters,

1:09:27 > 1:09:32David has always shone the spotlight on the animals, not himself.

1:09:32 > 1:09:38Which is why, if you've ever wondered, we always see him wearing the same clothes.

1:09:38 > 1:09:41People say, "Why do you always wear the same thing?"

1:09:41 > 1:09:45It seems to me, that if you change your costume and wear, I don't know,

1:09:45 > 1:09:53some kind of, I don't know, some kind of fashionable thing people say, "Why has he done that?

1:09:53 > 1:09:56"Is it trying to tell us something? Has the climate changed?

1:09:56 > 1:09:58You know, "What's he trying to do?"

1:09:58 > 1:10:05So you are asking for attention away from what it is you're trying to talk about.

1:10:05 > 1:10:09And his sole object in life at the moment is to make quite sure

1:10:09 > 1:10:15that he and he alone mates with every single one of them and to that he must fight.

1:10:15 > 1:10:17Since the beginning of his career,

1:10:17 > 1:10:21Sir David has had more than a lifetime's worth of interesting encounters.

1:10:23 > 1:10:27When I caught up with them at the top of the pass, I found to my horror

1:10:27 > 1:10:29that the men were refusing to go any further.

1:10:29 > 1:10:34They told me very firmly that this was the end of their tribal frontier.

1:10:34 > 1:10:36I said, "Now, come on, lads."

1:10:36 > 1:10:41And they said, "No good, no good." I said, "Why not?"

1:10:41 > 1:10:44They said, "We no go along him." "Why not?"

1:10:44 > 1:10:48HE REPEATS WHAT MEN SAID

1:10:48 > 1:10:51That means they're cannibals down there. I said, "Now, lads.

1:10:51 > 1:10:58"If it's another sixpence a day you want, you know, we can have a proper organised talk about this, you know."

1:10:58 > 1:11:01And they said, "No, no, him no good. Him bad fellow."

1:11:01 > 1:11:06And while I was actually saying this, with me being very British about the whole thing,

1:11:06 > 1:11:11I suddenly looked down the slope and I saw behind a tree

1:11:11 > 1:11:19a white cockatoo feather flash and I turned round again and there behind a boulder was the glint of a knife.

1:11:19 > 1:11:21I thought, "Oh!"

1:11:21 > 1:11:24And while I was in the process of thinking, "Oh!"

1:11:24 > 1:11:32suddenly out onto the track about 70 or 80 men suddenly jumped out of hiding

1:11:32 > 1:11:37and ran down towards us brandishing spears and waving knives.

1:11:37 > 1:11:41And to say I was alarmed is to put it mildly.

1:11:41 > 1:11:45Charles Lagus, who was my companion at the time with the camera,

1:11:45 > 1:11:47had the presence of mind -

1:11:47 > 1:11:51he'd got it in his hand - simply to turn it, so I know actually what happened.

1:11:51 > 1:11:55What happened was I walked towards this screaming horde of men

1:11:55 > 1:12:01and I actually heard myself, I stuck out my hand, and I heard myself say, "Good afternoon!"

1:12:01 > 1:12:02LAUGHTER

1:12:02 > 1:12:04It's true.

1:12:04 > 1:12:06APPLAUSE

1:12:06 > 1:12:12To my enormous relief, they greeted me not fiercely, but with considerable enthusiasm.

1:12:12 > 1:12:17Laughing at myself, I discovered that this, in fact, is merely the normal New Guinea welcome.

1:12:20 > 1:12:24In the 1960s, a new name became linked to wildlife programmes,

1:12:24 > 1:12:28but this time they were specially designed for children.

1:12:28 > 1:12:30The new series was Animal Magic.

1:12:33 > 1:12:35And the new name, Johnny Morris.

1:12:35 > 1:12:37Hello.

1:12:37 > 1:12:40Isn't it rotten when you can't think of anything to do?

1:12:40 > 1:12:43Yes, now let me have the hose, Wendy. Wendy!

1:12:43 > 1:12:51Contrary to popular belief, Johnny Morris was not a professional zoo-keeper, he was an entertainer.

1:12:51 > 1:12:56His playful humour and anthropomorphism is reminiscent of the early days of Kearton,

1:12:56 > 1:13:03- but Johnny Morris took it one step further, he put words into the animals' mouths.- Dear me.

1:13:03 > 1:13:06Are you feeling quite quiet today?

1:13:06 > 1:13:08"I am feeling quiet, thank you."

1:13:08 > 1:13:12"We are just simple animals what is living a simple life

1:13:12 > 1:13:19"and liking very much all the leaves that kind people are bringing to us from time to time."

1:13:19 > 1:13:23"Yes, and I would like to second that." Good.

1:13:23 > 1:13:27I mean, look at the clouds.

1:13:27 > 1:13:31"I know, I just wanted to take him out today."

1:13:31 > 1:13:33Oh, dear. Perhaps the sun will shine tomorrow.

1:13:33 > 1:13:35"Perhaps I can sit on your lap."

1:13:35 > 1:13:37Oh, yes. JOHNNY LAUGHS

1:13:39 > 1:13:41Are you quite comfortable?

1:13:41 > 1:13:43You are?

1:13:43 > 1:13:46That's good, yeah.

1:13:46 > 1:13:49Oh, my goodness me.

1:13:49 > 1:13:51Is that all right for you?

1:13:51 > 1:13:52How's the little one?

1:13:55 > 1:13:59Don't you think you ought to support his head like this?

1:13:59 > 1:14:03"Look, if you're so blinking clever, you nurse him.

1:14:03 > 1:14:05"Go on, there, get on with it.

1:14:05 > 1:14:08"Some people think they know the lot."

1:14:08 > 1:14:12And some people bridled at the level of anthropomorphism,

1:14:12 > 1:14:16but Johnny Morris's fun-filled series ran for 21 years.

1:14:16 > 1:14:20Would you allow me to pull a little bit of your coat off? No, they...

1:14:20 > 1:14:22Here it is, it comes off. Oh!

1:14:22 > 1:14:24It comes off.

1:14:24 > 1:14:29The series that replaced it turned out to be equally popular and ran for the same length of time.

1:14:29 > 1:14:31We'd better cut there and start again!

1:14:32 > 1:14:34It was called The Really Wild Show.

1:14:39 > 1:14:40APPLAUSE

1:14:45 > 1:14:49Sh! Right, hello and welcome to this.

1:14:49 > 1:14:52CHILDREN: The Really Wild Show!

1:14:52 > 1:14:54That's right, The Really Wild Show.

1:14:54 > 1:14:57And a big welcome from Nick, Chris and myself to this,

1:14:57 > 1:14:59the very first in a brand new series

1:14:59 > 1:15:01of natural history programmes from Bristol.

1:15:01 > 1:15:05By now, a whole new generation of wildlife presenters were running,

1:15:05 > 1:15:10jumping and leaping onto our screens.

1:15:14 > 1:15:15I need one of these...

1:15:18 > 1:15:19..and a peregrine falcon.

1:15:19 > 1:15:22Go! ..Go!

1:15:26 > 1:15:30I can see the headlines now: "Wildlife presenter killed by assassin bug."

1:15:33 > 1:15:36This is the best way in the world to see elephants.

1:15:36 > 1:15:42They pass right underneath you but they have absolutely no idea that you're here.

1:15:42 > 1:15:44And this one gets himself into a...

1:15:44 > 1:15:46Hey!

1:15:50 > 1:15:53Being kicked by a gorilla, I think, is a privilege.

1:15:53 > 1:15:57The biggest Scottish river is this one, the Tay.

1:15:58 > 1:16:03You've probably heard they're also learning to trumpet, which they seem to quite enjoy doing.

1:16:03 > 1:16:04Oh!

1:16:06 > 1:16:10What have we found? A couple of pairs mating over here.

1:16:10 > 1:16:11Two of them, three of them.

1:16:11 > 1:16:14Go, go, go! Go, go!

1:16:16 > 1:16:19Good. Hunting lesson number one, pretty successful.

1:16:19 > 1:16:20Wow.

1:16:22 > 1:16:28Believe me, I've had ants in my pants and it's nothing compared to having a fiddler crab in your shorts.

1:16:28 > 1:16:32In just a matter of minutes, I've attracted literally hundreds of beetles

1:16:32 > 1:16:36and all with the tiniest drop of pheromone.

1:16:36 > 1:16:38These are the moments I live for,

1:16:38 > 1:16:41where time stands still.

1:16:41 > 1:16:44So join me on an adventure into a mysterious world.

1:16:44 > 1:16:47I feel very much like an astronaut

1:16:47 > 1:16:52that has just touched down on the planet of penguins, a place inhabited by monochromatic dwarfs.

1:16:52 > 1:16:56(I feel like I ought to be conducting them. OK...)

1:16:57 > 1:16:59Go, go, go.

1:17:07 > 1:17:09Without my clothes, I AM going to die.

1:17:12 > 1:17:13All right, mate?

1:17:15 > 1:17:21Yes, well, we all have our own styles and indeed our own thresholds of modesty.

1:17:21 > 1:17:26But I do think a presenter can add something to a wildlife programme

1:17:26 > 1:17:32by bringing in a certain style or attitude, or being a sort of a guide.

1:17:32 > 1:17:35But then, I would say that, wouldn't I?

1:17:35 > 1:17:38The fact of the matter is though there are many wildlife films

1:17:38 > 1:17:41that have no human involvement whatsoever

1:17:41 > 1:17:47but they simply astonish us by their truly pioneering nature.

1:17:47 > 1:17:50And in this case the pioneers themselves are the film-makers,

1:17:50 > 1:17:54especially those who are prepared to take a few risks.

1:17:57 > 1:18:02In a series Kingdom Of The Ice Bear, producer Mike Salisbury braved sub-zero temperatures

1:18:02 > 1:18:08and dangerous predators to film polar bears emerging from their winter hibernation.

1:18:08 > 1:18:12We were absolutely determined to capture that moment

1:18:12 > 1:18:16when a mother bear brings out her cubs for the first time.

1:18:16 > 1:18:22We had two sleds on the back of each snowmobile loaded with camping gear,

1:18:22 > 1:18:27food, fuel, everything we needed for six weeks.

1:18:27 > 1:18:33We found one den after about four weeks, and it seemed to be perfect.

1:18:33 > 1:18:37We built a sort of half an igloo as a hide,

1:18:37 > 1:18:42set it up and then she came out,

1:18:42 > 1:18:48wandered down the side of the hill and off down the valley and that's the last we saw of her.

1:18:48 > 1:18:52We thought, "Oh, no." There was no sign of cubs having been there at all.

1:18:52 > 1:18:57We'd chosen perhaps the one den in the whole of Spitsbergen

1:18:57 > 1:19:01where a mother bear had had a false pregnancy.

1:19:02 > 1:19:08Right, I mean, I think in the last week of the rations and fuel and everything we had,

1:19:08 > 1:19:14um, we found a den on a slope above the sea ice.

1:19:16 > 1:19:19We made another sort of igloo hide.

1:19:21 > 1:19:26In the end, the mother came out and we were really lucky

1:19:26 > 1:19:30because she did this wonderful sort of sliding down on her back,

1:19:30 > 1:19:33out of the den, with her legs in the air.

1:19:33 > 1:19:41You really felt that she was delighted to be out after all those weeks in the den.

1:19:43 > 1:19:46CUB WHINES

1:19:46 > 1:19:51And then, the next day, she went back and got the cubs out and we got our sequence. Phew!

1:19:51 > 1:19:57Within a few days of opening the den, a mother bear will take the cubs on short outings,

1:19:57 > 1:20:01strengthening their legs for longer journeys across the sea ice.

1:20:05 > 1:20:10A third cub has surfaced, but is too nervous to join the others, although on this first outing,

1:20:10 > 1:20:15the attentive mother will not take them far from the safety of the den.

1:20:18 > 1:20:24At Mzima Springs in Kenya in the late '60s, newcomers to wildlife films Joan and Alan Root

1:20:24 > 1:20:27wanted to make their mark on the industry,

1:20:27 > 1:20:33so they decided they'd start with the animal that kills more people in Africa than any other, hippos.

1:20:33 > 1:20:37Hippos had been filmed on land, but the Roots wanted to be

1:20:37 > 1:20:42the first people ever to get shots of hippos underwater.

1:20:42 > 1:20:44Crazy idea? Possibly.

1:20:44 > 1:20:46How were they going to do it?

1:20:46 > 1:20:50Here at its moorings, is Scheme One, Mark 1.

1:20:53 > 1:20:57The idea was that Joan should lie in the appropriately coffin-shaped hull

1:20:57 > 1:21:01and do the filming while Alan punted her to suitable locations.

1:21:01 > 1:21:07She was to film through the glass front of this particular craft and use the thing as a mobile hide.

1:21:07 > 1:21:09Well, that was the idea.

1:21:09 > 1:21:13So they set sail in Scheme One, Mark 1,

1:21:13 > 1:21:18and headed both for deeper water and for hippos or crocodiles or whatever.

1:21:27 > 1:21:32Trouble, the hippos sheered off and the glass steamed-up,

1:21:32 > 1:21:34so squeegeeing was necessary.

1:21:34 > 1:21:37But there wasn't much point even in clean glass if there was nothing to see,

1:21:37 > 1:21:42and so they moved on to Scheme Two to see if that would work.

1:21:46 > 1:21:50If anything, this is an even bigger failure than the floating tank.

1:21:50 > 1:21:52Although it's certainly a lot cooler.

1:21:52 > 1:21:55The way it works is I put my feet through holes in the bottom,

1:21:55 > 1:21:57then lift the cage up on my shoulders

1:21:57 > 1:22:00and walk around following the hippo.

1:22:00 > 1:22:01In theory.

1:22:12 > 1:22:16What it gained in coolness, it lost in manoeuvrability.

1:22:16 > 1:22:20Also, when Birnam Wood came to Mzima, the wind would catch hold of it

1:22:20 > 1:22:24and would care not a fig for the man below,

1:22:24 > 1:22:28for the man who was in theory at the helm of Mark 1 Scheme Two.

1:22:42 > 1:22:49So they left Scheme Two and mainly took to snorkelling instead, although the cages did have their uses.

1:22:49 > 1:22:51Skin diving was infinitely more practical,

1:22:51 > 1:22:55but with limbs totally exposed it meant keeping a very good lookout

1:22:55 > 1:23:02at all times on a normal underwater camera, and then swimming as close to the quarry as one dared to go.

1:23:19 > 1:23:22The Roots' ingenuity and perseverance had paid off

1:23:22 > 1:23:25and they'd achieved exactly what they set out to do.

1:23:25 > 1:23:32Their film Mzima made history by showing hippos underwater for the very first time.

1:24:05 > 1:24:08It was a remarkable achievement, but not without mishap.

1:24:08 > 1:24:15Not only did Alan get bitten through the leg when he found himself in the middle of two male hippos fighting,

1:24:15 > 1:24:18but Joan also had an incredibly narrow escape.

1:24:20 > 1:24:24A tooth passed millimetres from her face, tearing the mask

1:24:24 > 1:24:29and breaking the glass, but incredibly leaving Joan unmarked.

1:24:30 > 1:24:36Undeterred by their encounters, the Roots continued to work with dangerous animals.

1:24:41 > 1:24:45Alan achieved these remarkable shots of this cobra spitting

1:24:45 > 1:24:51out its lethal venom at, you guessed it, his wife, Joan.

1:25:02 > 1:25:08Spectacles are enough to protect the eyes, and if it's quickly washed off, the venom doesn't harm the skin.

1:25:08 > 1:25:14Wild animals are unpredictable, and sometimes a dangerous situation comes out of the blue.

1:25:14 > 1:25:22Lacking a dart to deliver the vital antidote, there was only one thing to do - to try to inject it by hand.

1:25:22 > 1:25:25Elephant biologist, Iain Douglas-Hamilton,

1:25:25 > 1:25:28felt duty bound to administer the antidote

1:25:28 > 1:25:30to save the stricken animal's life.

1:25:30 > 1:25:31But think about it -

1:25:31 > 1:25:36the camera man, Dieter Plage, his life was also in danger.

1:25:36 > 1:25:37But he carried on filming.

1:25:39 > 1:25:44When that failed, to drive in close was the only hope.

1:25:45 > 1:25:49The needle went home, and so did Sarah's cross tusks.

1:26:08 > 1:26:11Having, as she thought, wiped out her enemy,

1:26:11 > 1:26:14she backed off to tend the bull, who was beginning to come round.

1:26:20 > 1:26:27Film-makers in Africa quite literally taking risks with genuinely dangerous creatures.

1:26:27 > 1:26:33Meanwhile, in Britain, film-makers were taking more technical risks

1:26:33 > 1:26:37with creatures which were a little less dangerous.

1:26:37 > 1:26:39Like birds.

1:26:44 > 1:26:49Producer John Downer tried a number of ways to give viewers

1:26:49 > 1:26:52the sense of what it's like to fly like a bird.

1:26:54 > 1:26:56I wanted to make a film about bird flight,

1:26:56 > 1:26:59but the only way I could see doing it is you had to be up there with them,

1:26:59 > 1:27:01and so it was really

1:27:01 > 1:27:04letting your imagination run wild, and think,

1:27:04 > 1:27:06how can we use techniques to get up there,

1:27:06 > 1:27:08techniques that hadn't been used before.

1:27:11 > 1:27:16And so we put a little camera inside the nose of a model glider.

1:27:16 > 1:27:21We redesigned the actual method of propulsion,

1:27:21 > 1:27:26so the propellers from behind were pushing out so the camera could see forward.

1:27:28 > 1:27:34And so we designed this new craft, and took it off

1:27:34 > 1:27:39on to intercept birds on migrations, white storks on migration.

1:27:43 > 1:27:48But when it came down, it clipped these trees, smashed into a thousand pieces.

1:27:48 > 1:27:51The camera was a total write-off, film spewed everywhere.

1:27:51 > 1:27:56So, model glider in pieces, John tried his luck with model helicopters.

1:27:56 > 1:27:59We used to get through a model helicopter for every shot

1:27:59 > 1:28:03because there was always some gremlin in the works, as so often happens.

1:28:03 > 1:28:09Everything's fine when you test it, but as soon as you come to film, the thing plummets out of the sky.

1:28:10 > 1:28:12So, abandon glider, abandon helicopter,

1:28:12 > 1:28:17and John turned to the already tried-and-tested method of imprinting,

1:28:17 > 1:28:21whereby newly-hatched ducklings adopt the first thing they see as their parent.

1:28:23 > 1:28:27If you become that parent, it will follow you wherever you go,

1:28:27 > 1:28:32and if you go up in the air, ultimately, when it can fly, it will go up there with you.

1:28:33 > 1:28:37So, how do you fly alongside a bird?

1:28:37 > 1:28:41Well, if you're John Downer you simply fix a parascender onto your back,

1:28:41 > 1:28:47then get someone to tow you along in a Land Rover until you take off, like a bird!

1:28:47 > 1:28:51And then crash like a TV producer.

1:28:51 > 1:28:52Take two.

1:28:55 > 1:28:59I got up in the air and thought, "Now's the time to release," so I got the duck out,

1:28:59 > 1:29:04which was called Gadaffi, and cast it off.

1:29:04 > 1:29:07And then it started to plummet, and I thought, "Oh, no!

1:29:07 > 1:29:08"Is it going to fly?!"

1:29:08 > 1:29:12And it dropped, and then suddenly found its wings, raced up

1:29:12 > 1:29:15until it was literally there, and I was flying alongside it.

1:29:15 > 1:29:17It was about a foot away from me.

1:29:17 > 1:29:20It was the most magical experience.

1:29:20 > 1:29:25And a magical experience resulted in magical images.

1:29:42 > 1:29:50John Downer wasn't the first to use imprinted birds, but he certainly took filming of them to new heights.

1:30:21 > 1:30:22Back down on the ground,

1:30:22 > 1:30:25John Downer and others have deployed ever wackier ways

1:30:25 > 1:30:31to get close to their subjects, though some of the cast clearly prefer to film themselves.

1:31:08 > 1:31:10Can you guess what it is yet?

1:31:47 > 1:31:51Ingenious. Intrepid. Or maybe just a bit silly.

1:31:51 > 1:31:58But then again, that's one of the joys of wildlife - there are so many different ways to approach it.

1:31:58 > 1:32:03It can be fun, or it can be a very serious scientific study.

1:32:03 > 1:32:11In fact, some of the best wildlife films have been made by film-makers who have tapped in to the font

1:32:11 > 1:32:13of knowledge accumulated by scientists,

1:32:13 > 1:32:18who have spent maybe their whole lives studying a single species.

1:32:24 > 1:32:30To film intimate details of elephant family life in Kenya, film-maker Martin Colbeck

1:32:30 > 1:32:36had to work closely with elephant biologist Cynthia Moss, who'd studied one group for 25 years.

1:32:37 > 1:32:42Well, the first thing we tried to do was to get to know all the elephants individually.

1:32:42 > 1:32:47At that time, there were about 500 to 600 elephants in the population.

1:32:47 > 1:32:51That was a very nice number to begin with because we felt that that was

1:32:51 > 1:32:55within the realm of possibility, to know each of those individuals.

1:32:55 > 1:32:58- How many hundred? - Between five and 600!

1:32:58 > 1:33:00How long did it take you to do that?

1:33:00 > 1:33:04It took quite a long time. It took of a couple of years at least.

1:33:04 > 1:33:10I think, in fact, that it wasn't until 1978 I felt I knew every individual in the population.

1:33:10 > 1:33:14- How do you recognise them? - By their ears, first of all.

1:33:14 > 1:33:16That's the main characteristic.

1:33:16 > 1:33:19Their ears are never absolutely smooth along the edge.

1:33:19 > 1:33:23There's usually little nicks or holes or whatever.

1:33:23 > 1:33:26And also the vein pattern is very distinctive.

1:33:26 > 1:33:32But after a while, you get so used to them, and you recognise the whole elephant.

1:33:36 > 1:33:38Cynthia's in-depth knowledge helped to record

1:33:38 > 1:33:42some of the most enchanting moments ever captured on film.

1:33:44 > 1:33:49Eli was born in 1990, crippled.

1:33:49 > 1:33:52At the time, his chances of survival seemed slim.

1:33:52 > 1:33:58But neither his mother, Echo, nor his sister, Enid, would desert him.

1:33:58 > 1:34:05With amazing determination, he tried over and over again to stretch his bent legs.

1:34:05 > 1:34:10Until, finally, on the third day, he managed to stand up.

1:34:16 > 1:34:19By the time Eli was a week old, he was able to keep up

1:34:19 > 1:34:23with the family, even though his legs were a bit rubbery.

1:34:27 > 1:34:32In the 1960s, acclaimed film-maker Hugo van Lawick

1:34:32 > 1:34:35teamed up with a young researcher, Jane Goodall,

1:34:35 > 1:34:42who was at the start of what would become a lifetime study of Tanzania's wild chimpanzees.

1:34:43 > 1:34:49In documenting Jane's research, Hugo's film knocked us off our pedestal

1:34:49 > 1:34:54and made us rethink our definition of what it means to be human.

1:34:54 > 1:34:57She moves in a little closer, and makes a startling discovery.

1:35:01 > 1:35:05She sees a chimp picking a leaf, crumpling it in his mouth

1:35:05 > 1:35:07and using it to sup up water

1:35:07 > 1:35:09collected deep in the hollow of a tree.

1:35:09 > 1:35:16Until this study, man alone has been considered the tool maker.

1:35:16 > 1:35:20Chimpanzees have been seen drinking from natural water bowls in Uganda.

1:35:20 > 1:35:26But on those instances, they merely dipped their finger into the water and licked off the drops.

1:35:26 > 1:35:29The exciting fact in the Gombe Stream area

1:35:29 > 1:35:35is that the chimpanzee, by initially crumpling believes into a sponge, is, in fact, making a tool.

1:35:37 > 1:35:42In this film, our closest living relatives were shown as intelligent, sophisticated animals.

1:35:42 > 1:35:46But, in the Tai Forest in West Africa, the Swiss biologist had discovered

1:35:46 > 1:35:50a rather less peaceful side to their nature

1:35:50 > 1:35:54and the BBC were keen to tap into his 10-year study.

1:35:55 > 1:36:01Practically part of the group and able to recognise all the chimps individually straight away,

1:36:01 > 1:36:04is a Swiss zoologist Christophe Boesch.

1:36:08 > 1:36:13For 10 years, working almost every day from dawn till dusk,

1:36:13 > 1:36:18he has studied and recorded the group's behaviour with his wife Hedwige.

1:36:18 > 1:36:21How did you manage to get these animals so accustomed to you

1:36:21 > 1:36:25so that we could stand this close to them as this.

1:36:25 > 1:36:28Oh, just patience.

1:36:28 > 1:36:30It took us five years.

1:36:30 > 1:36:32- Five years? - Five years just following them

1:36:32 > 1:36:38and being always very quiet, never aggressive, always the same colours and clothes

1:36:38 > 1:36:40and patience, patience.

1:36:40 > 1:36:43At the beginning, it was absolutely the impossible.

1:36:43 > 1:36:48It's quite difficult to imagine what it was at the beginning, just bottoms running away.

1:36:52 > 1:36:57Moving quickly and quietly, the males are looking for colobus.

1:36:59 > 1:37:02The hunt is on. The males start to climb.

1:37:06 > 1:37:09Each hunter has his own special role to play.

1:37:11 > 1:37:14This male is the driver.

1:37:14 > 1:37:17He keeps the colobus moving in one direction.

1:37:22 > 1:37:27Another climbs quietly into position, ready to block an escape.

1:37:27 > 1:37:30This is the ambusher, waiting quietly ahead.

1:37:30 > 1:37:34When the time comes, he will rush up and close the trap.

1:37:38 > 1:37:40The driver leaps.

1:37:40 > 1:37:44Now, colobus and chimp are in the same tree.

1:37:51 > 1:37:54The ambusher rushes up to close the trap.

1:38:05 > 1:38:08A hunter nearly grabs its prey.

1:38:13 > 1:38:15HIGH-PITCHED SCREECHING

1:38:15 > 1:38:18A capture! Females scream with excitement.

1:38:18 > 1:38:21The hunters struggle to bring their victim to the ground.

1:38:34 > 1:38:39Only after the kill has been dismembered does the forest finally quieten down.

1:38:42 > 1:38:45We made a film about chimps hunting monkeys.

1:38:45 > 1:38:51That was an extraordinary and powerful and alarming and dismaying thing to see.

1:38:51 > 1:38:57Again, people say, "How can you put on such savagery of a predator catching prey".

1:38:57 > 1:39:02And, "You are milking it for violence".

1:39:02 > 1:39:07If they saw what you put out on the cutting-room floor

1:39:07 > 1:39:10of this animal in suffering...

1:39:10 > 1:39:13It is a very narrow line you have to tread.

1:39:13 > 1:39:18You cannot, in my view, eliminate it entirely.

1:39:18 > 1:39:23That is to sentimentalise and distort reality.

1:39:23 > 1:39:27But equally, some of it is very hard to take.

1:39:28 > 1:39:31This line between reality and sensitivity

1:39:31 > 1:39:36varies depending on which side of the Atlantic you live on and, indeed,

1:39:36 > 1:39:38which end of the century you're born into.

1:39:38 > 1:39:40As early as 1910,

1:39:40 > 1:39:45cameraman Carl Akeley staged this lion-spearing ritual in Kenya.

1:39:45 > 1:39:49Although we only see one lion actually being speared, in fact,

1:39:49 > 1:39:54he allowed 14 lions are to be killed just to get the sequence he wanted.

1:39:54 > 1:39:57He did, though, spare the audience any bloodshed.

1:39:58 > 1:40:02The Johnsons' film, Simba, earned them £2 million dollars.

1:40:02 > 1:40:05Absolutely astonishing for 1928.

1:40:05 > 1:40:12The success of these carnage filled films led to the feeling in America

1:40:12 > 1:40:16that films without thrills and kills simply would not succeed.

1:40:16 > 1:40:18..Already the big animal has seen her.

1:40:18 > 1:40:21The bullet has found its mark.

1:40:21 > 1:40:23Once king of the jungle,

1:40:23 > 1:40:26and now merely 400lbs of dead beast and also...

1:40:28 > 1:40:31Clearly, American tastes haven't changed all that much.

1:40:31 > 1:40:35Witness this 1990 trail for the BBC's Trials of Life.

1:40:35 > 1:40:40'..That exposes the struggle to survive through uncensored, shocking photography.

1:40:40 > 1:40:42'Turner Broadcasting and Time Life Video

1:40:42 > 1:40:45'dare you to take a walk on the wild side with Trials of Life.'

1:40:47 > 1:40:50There are A team, B team and C team animals.

1:40:50 > 1:40:54Insects are sort of C team, definitely, and lions are A team.

1:40:54 > 1:41:01Anything that's big and scary and a predator is definitely what most people like to see.

1:41:01 > 1:41:04'Join acclaimed naturalist David Attenborough

1:41:04 > 1:41:08'for our close encounter with raw nature as you have never seen it before.'

1:41:08 > 1:41:12It took out of context, a number of shots of predation and fighting

1:41:12 > 1:41:16and cut them together so fast with extraordinary, exaggerated music

1:41:16 > 1:41:20to give the impression that the series was all about violence,

1:41:20 > 1:41:21which it wasn't.

1:41:21 > 1:41:27'Trials Of Life is a first-hand account of the struggle to survive in a savage, untamed environment.'

1:41:27 > 1:41:30The way it was marketed, I think, was absolutely brilliant,

1:41:30 > 1:41:31as far as I'm concerned.

1:41:31 > 1:41:33A lot of people would disagree

1:41:33 > 1:41:37but I think it was brilliant. They did it tooth and claw.

1:41:37 > 1:41:42'Violent footage shows you the life and death struggle to survive in a harsh and brutal world.'

1:41:46 > 1:41:52American networks love their thrills and kills, but no blood.

1:41:52 > 1:41:57So, whilst films distort the truth by over-representing kills,

1:41:57 > 1:42:02they also distort the truth by sanitising the kill itself.

1:42:02 > 1:42:05As the BBC series Big Cat Week Uncut showed,

1:42:05 > 1:42:08animals are often DON'T die quickly.

1:42:08 > 1:42:10It can take hours.

1:42:18 > 1:42:22The showing of violence will always be controversial

1:42:22 > 1:42:26and so, indeed, will the showing of sex.

1:42:30 > 1:42:38In the early 1960s, an amateur film-maker, and Eric Ashby made history with his film A Hare's Life.

1:42:41 > 1:42:45He did a daring thing and showed hares mating,

1:42:45 > 1:42:47a first for wildlife programmes.

1:42:49 > 1:42:53It was a discreet long shot but apparently shocking enough to result

1:42:53 > 1:42:57in a flood of angry letters from an irate British public.

1:42:58 > 1:43:02It didn't take long for Britain to get used to the idea of mating animals,

1:43:02 > 1:43:07but it took very much longer in America.

1:43:07 > 1:43:13In 1974, this scene from Survival's The Family That Lives With Elephants

1:43:13 > 1:43:18was deleted before being transmitted on American networks.

1:43:18 > 1:43:22Soon, inevitably, the young males become interested in the female calves.

1:43:22 > 1:43:26They're beginning to become a thorough nuisance in the family.

1:43:26 > 1:43:31Such scenes would only become acceptable on American TV in the late 1980s,

1:43:31 > 1:43:3430 years after Britain had first shocked its audience.

1:43:34 > 1:43:39Sex and genitalia, the very currency of power between the sexes,

1:43:39 > 1:43:45are continually on show and become social assets rather than demonstrations of dominance.

1:43:47 > 1:43:52So, the content of wildlife films over the last century

1:43:52 > 1:43:55has had as much to do with the wider social attitudes

1:43:55 > 1:43:58as it has had to do with the advances in science.

1:43:58 > 1:44:04Nowadays, we respect and want to understand the intricate details of natural behaviour.

1:44:04 > 1:44:06A pretty far cry from those early days

1:44:06 > 1:44:11when unfamiliar animals were almost considered freaks.

1:44:11 > 1:44:15A herd of loping, ungainly giraffes struggling to keep up with their brothers of the jungle.

1:44:15 > 1:44:18The giraffes take on a grotesque, unreal appearance,

1:44:18 > 1:44:25almost like tiny animated toys pumping their way across a shop window or nursery floor.

1:44:25 > 1:44:32Our attitudes have definitely improved but, alas, the situation for the wildlife definitely hasn't.

1:44:32 > 1:44:38When Cherry Kearton took these shots, there were an estimated 10 million elephants in Africa.

1:44:38 > 1:44:41Today, there are just 500,000.

1:44:46 > 1:44:51The vast herds of plains animals seen roaming across Africa in those days

1:44:51 > 1:44:57are today replaced by small populations, confined within the boundaries of national parks.

1:45:00 > 1:45:06As our species has increased, others have decreased.

1:45:11 > 1:45:15In this relatively short time, some wildlife films

1:45:15 > 1:45:20have sadly become vital records of species that no longer exist.

1:47:13 > 1:47:19Just a few of the very, very many species that are seriously endangered.

1:47:19 > 1:47:25And, it really does make you wonder, what if more wildlife programmes and films in the past

1:47:25 > 1:47:28had been about conservation. Would that have helped?

1:47:28 > 1:47:34Let's face it, those early films were about as conservation-minded is as a trip to the circus.

1:47:34 > 1:47:38But the honest fact of the matter is, it wasn't until the 1950s

1:47:38 > 1:47:44before people began to seriously suggest the biggest danger to wildlife was...

1:47:44 > 1:47:46Yeah, you got it, man.

1:47:49 > 1:47:51In his film, No Room for Wild Animals, Bernard Grzimek

1:47:51 > 1:47:54made a brave move away from entertainment

1:47:54 > 1:47:57to highlight the dangers of over hunting in Africa.

1:48:01 > 1:48:04It made the powerful impact and as a result,

1:48:04 > 1:48:11Serengeti National Park was established in Tanzania as a safe haven for wildlife,

1:48:11 > 1:48:12which it remains today.

1:48:15 > 1:48:20Since Grzimek, others have brought our attention to the plight of individual animals.

1:48:20 > 1:48:26We are now fully aware that the Orang-utan is rapidly losing its habitat to the palm oil industry.

1:48:26 > 1:48:30Five million hectares of rainforest have been destroyed for plantations,

1:48:30 > 1:48:34leaving these red apes with no way to live.

1:48:36 > 1:48:41If the relentless destruction of Borneo's rainforest continues,

1:48:41 > 1:48:45wild orang-utans will be extinct within 10 years.

1:48:45 > 1:48:49And we simply can't let that happen.

1:48:56 > 1:49:02The oceans largest fish, the whale shark, has recently become the first marine species to become protected

1:49:02 > 1:49:06under the Indian Wildlife Act thanks to Mike Pandey's film

1:49:06 > 1:49:12which showed how these impressive creatures were being massacred on India's shores.

1:49:12 > 1:49:15Scores of whale sharks lay on the beach,

1:49:15 > 1:49:17hauled in to be slaughtered.

1:49:23 > 1:49:26But for the local people, nothing seemed amiss.

1:49:27 > 1:49:30For them, it was just another catch.

1:49:36 > 1:49:39A recent film on the pygmy chimpanzee, or bonobo,

1:49:39 > 1:49:45looked at what happens to animals in war-torn areas like the Congo.

1:49:46 > 1:49:52In 1998, deep tension surfaced again, neighbouring countries lined up behind different factions.

1:49:52 > 1:49:56The Congo plunged into a bitter and protracted civil war.

1:49:58 > 1:50:02Now even bonobo researchers came under suspicion.

1:50:03 > 1:50:06Soldiers came to our campsite to arrest us

1:50:06 > 1:50:12because there was a general belief that we were spies for the enemy.

1:50:12 > 1:50:14The scientists were forced out.

1:50:14 > 1:50:18More than 20 years' worth of continuous observations,

1:50:18 > 1:50:22a valuable record of individual bonobo lives, came to an end.

1:50:24 > 1:50:28As a result of this film, money has being donated for further research

1:50:28 > 1:50:32and two new research sites have been opened up

1:50:32 > 1:50:35to study the last remaining populations of wild bonoboes.

1:50:36 > 1:50:40But, despite these positive outcomes, conservation programmes

1:50:40 > 1:50:44can be extremely uncomfortable to watch.

1:50:47 > 1:50:52This shocking footage led to the anti-fur trade campaign of the 1970s.

1:50:54 > 1:51:00That we could generate this sort of public pressure to stop the front hunt,

1:51:00 > 1:51:03as we were able to do to stop the Magdalen Islands hunt...

1:51:05 > 1:51:10But however important that the message, not everyone can stomach images like these.

1:51:11 > 1:51:17So, can films inspire concern for the natural world in other ways.

1:51:17 > 1:51:21Of course there are natural history films that

1:51:21 > 1:51:24send a straight forward conservation message,

1:51:24 > 1:51:29and so there should be, but it would be a sad time, I think,

1:51:29 > 1:51:34if every film felt impelled to focus itself in that particular way.

1:51:34 > 1:51:38All good natural history films which are truthful are,

1:51:38 > 1:51:42in themselves, conservation messages.

1:51:42 > 1:51:44So in other words,

1:51:44 > 1:51:52if you want people to care about the wild world, you have to let them know what it is in the first place.

1:51:52 > 1:51:56That is the first thing. And if they then read the following morning in the newspaper

1:51:56 > 1:52:02that that thing they've been looking at is endangered, then maybe they'll do something about it.

1:52:02 > 1:52:05But if they don't know what it is, they won't.

1:52:06 > 1:52:10Five million birds make this journey every year.

1:52:12 > 1:52:15The success of the BBC's recent series Planet Earth

1:52:15 > 1:52:22proves that there are millions of people captivated by the images of beauty in the natural world.

1:52:26 > 1:52:30But, in this era of internet, mobiles, multi-channel TV,

1:52:30 > 1:52:35film-makers have got to work harder than ever before to win their audience's attention.

1:52:39 > 1:52:4450 years ago it was pretty well a straight-on look at what the animal was.

1:52:44 > 1:52:47Now, you have ecological studies, you have life histories,

1:52:47 > 1:52:53you have daily diaries as you do in things like Big Cat Diary,

1:52:53 > 1:52:54and so on.

1:52:54 > 1:52:57They go under the water, up in the sky.

1:52:57 > 1:53:02The styles and scope of natural history filming today

1:53:02 > 1:53:07is incomparably greater than it was 50 to 100 years ago.

1:53:07 > 1:53:12In parallel with society, films are a continually evolving medium.

1:53:12 > 1:53:15Just as they reflected attitudes 100 years ago,

1:53:15 > 1:53:22programmes today, more than ever before, are shaped by the tastes and the culture we live in.

1:53:22 > 1:53:26The popularity of soap operas has even spread into the wildlife film industry.

1:53:27 > 1:53:33The recent series, Meerkat Manor, has enough scandal to rival EastEnders.

1:53:33 > 1:53:37Carlos and Daisy are too wrapped up in themselves

1:53:37 > 1:53:39to care what anyone else thinks.

1:53:39 > 1:53:43But Daisy is going to have to face the music when she gets home.

1:53:43 > 1:53:45Her family are going to be furious.

1:53:45 > 1:53:48If she gets pregnant, there will be hell to pay.

1:53:49 > 1:53:53And programmes like Springwatch which are broadcast live,

1:53:53 > 1:53:55are drawing in bigger audiences than ever before,

1:53:55 > 1:54:00attracting viewers who like the buzz of the unplannable and unpredictable.

1:54:00 > 1:54:03This is from Heligan. This is a fox.

1:54:03 > 1:54:06This is happening right now folks. This is live.

1:54:06 > 1:54:07This is amazing!

1:54:09 > 1:54:15And for armchair explorers, there has even been a return to the old expedition style of film.

1:54:15 > 1:54:17Quick, quick. Look!

1:54:17 > 1:54:18A Monitor lizard.

1:54:18 > 1:54:21He was sitting, basking in the sun on the bank.

1:54:21 > 1:54:25The team need to be quick if they're to see any creatures close up.

1:54:26 > 1:54:29I thought it was a crab or...

1:54:29 > 1:54:31I thought, "I'll get the net."

1:54:31 > 1:54:33PEOPLE SHOUT IN BACKGROUND

1:54:33 > 1:54:36What they've actually found is a freshwater turtle.

1:54:36 > 1:54:37It's a small female.

1:54:38 > 1:54:46And in these more celebrity-obsessed times, TV stars are an increasingly popular ingredient,

1:54:46 > 1:54:50hopefully reaching new audiences.

1:54:50 > 1:54:52Oh, how cute is that.

1:54:52 > 1:54:53Oh, look at him!

1:54:54 > 1:55:00It's just joyful. We've miraculously seen the first pups since the attack in December.

1:55:00 > 1:55:03We've seen at least three.

1:55:03 > 1:55:05I don't know whether this is the den or not

1:55:05 > 1:55:09but they're definitely up here and cute as anything.

1:55:13 > 1:55:16And for cinema lovers, there are now even films like

1:55:16 > 1:55:20The March of the Penguins tailored specifically for the big screen.

1:55:20 > 1:55:22In fact, it's a return

1:55:22 > 1:55:26to where wildlife films first started 100 years ago.

1:55:26 > 1:55:32By now, similar caravans are approaching from every direction.

1:55:32 > 1:55:35And, finally, often on the same day,

1:55:35 > 1:55:42even around the same time, they will arrive at the place where each and every one of them was born.

1:55:59 > 1:56:05I watch other people's natural history films all the time, not simply because, as a film-maker,

1:56:05 > 1:56:08I ought to be aware of what my colleagues are doing,

1:56:08 > 1:56:10but simply because it seems to me

1:56:10 > 1:56:15that they are some of the most exciting and rewarding viewings you can have.

1:56:15 > 1:56:18They are beautiful, they are dramatic,

1:56:18 > 1:56:21they are above all true, they are not trying to sell you anything,

1:56:21 > 1:56:25they're not about a political party, they are not telling you lies.

1:56:25 > 1:56:28They are about life itself. And if you've...

1:56:28 > 1:56:29As Dr Johnson said somewhere,

1:56:29 > 1:56:34"If you're tired of natural history films, you're tired of life".

1:56:35 > 1:56:38And, that is a sentiment I certainly agree with.

1:56:38 > 1:56:40But I think I'd go further.

1:56:40 > 1:56:46I think I would say that wildlife and human life are inextricably connected.

1:56:46 > 1:56:50So, quite simply, if we don't care for the natural world,

1:56:50 > 1:56:52we don't care for our world either

1:56:52 > 1:56:55and that to me is the ultimate aim,

1:56:55 > 1:56:58the hope, the prayer behind every wildlife film.

1:56:58 > 1:57:03It is to make us care and say, "Here's something we love.

1:57:03 > 1:57:06"We don't want to lose it".

1:58:06 > 1:58:09I know of no pleasure deeper than that which comes from

1:58:09 > 1:58:15contemplating the natural world and trying to understand it.

1:58:38 > 1:58:42Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd

1:58:42 > 1:58:45E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk